JAIPUR: Shouting slogans such as "Hang the killers" and waving placards and saffron flags, members of several organisations gathered in thousands under the banner of Sakal Hindu Samaj at Statue Circle in Jaipur on Sunday to protest the beheading of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal Sahu. They also demanded a ban on madrassas and action on radical Islamic groups.
RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and 100 other groups organised the protest, while senior BJP members supported it. Jaipur BJP MP Ramcharan Bohra, Sanaganer MLA Ashok Lahoti, Malviya Nagar MLA Kaicharan Saraf, and former state presidents Arun Chaturvedi and Ashok Parnami attended the protest with their supporters. None of the politicians were allowed to share the stage or address the crowd except the religious heads.
The crowd reached the venue amid heavy rainfall in the morning. It swelled after people from outside Jaipur began pouring in. Many women were also present.
Almost all the speakers unanimously held the Congress government's "policy of appeasement" responsible for the killing of Sahu and violence in Karauli, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Malpura and Chabbra. Mahant Balmukudacharya of Hatoj Dam in Jhotwara said, "Hindu society will not...allow Rajasthan to become a Taliban at any cost. It seems that the government is testing the patience of the majority community."
Pramod Sharma, a retired central government employee, said: "No senior BJP leader visited Udaipur to meet the family of the deceased or announce any compensation. If this is true, we have to look for another political alternative."
