Pravin Togadia Pravin Togadia

VHP working president Praveen Togadia was on Thursday refused permission to address the VHP’s golden jubilee function in the Assam capital, with Guwahati Police Commissionerate fearing that his inflammatory speeches would disturb law and order and hurt sentiments of the religious minority community.

Togadia, who arrived in the city early on Thursday from Silchar in southern Assam, had to remain confined to the VHP office here for over six hours, during which he however addressed an impromptu press conference in which he criticized the Congress government in the state for stopping him from addressing the VHP function.

Police Commissioner Jyotirmoy Chakravarty in an prohibitory order issued under Section 144 of the CrPC, said Togadia had in a meeting at Patharkandi in southern Assam delivered a speech in which he asked religious minority groups to reconvert to Hinduism, “which is likely to create deep resentment and insecurity among minority communities and disturb public order.”

Expressing shock over the police ban on Togadia in Guwahati, the VHP’s Assam unit said there was no logic behind the police apprehension of a law and order situation if Togadia is allowed to address the meeting. Condemning the police and state government, SD Sinha, Guwahati Mahanagar Samiti spokesman described it as an attack on the freedom of expression.

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