Thousands Are Arrested in India in Unrest Over Temple Site (Hindu protests)

NYT ^ | 07/07/05 | SOMINI SENGUPTA

[TigerLikesRooster]

July 7, 2005

Thousands Are Arrested in India in Unrest Over Temple Site

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

NEW DELHI, July 6 - The police on Wednesday fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators in the center of this city, the Indian capital, who were protesting an attack on a disputed religious site that has emerged as India's most potent symbol of sectarian strife.

A day after the attack on the site, the temple compound in the northern town of Ayodhya, protesters led by the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, and their allied organizations, also stormed the airport and hurled potted plants in Indore, a central Indian city, and smashed car windows in Ranchi, in eastern Jharkhand State.

In the capital, the political protest led by the opposition party chief, Lal Krishna Advani, resulted in the arrests of more than 2,800 people. The local police said that 76 were arrested in Indore and 115 in Ranchi. Strikes have been called by Hindu political groups for Thursday.

The demonstrations were peaceful and small, though, in comparison with the Hindu-Muslim violence that has previously broken out in this country. In the attack on Tuesday, gunmen brazenly laid siege to the heavily fortified Ayodhya temple compound.

In December 1992, led by the rallying cry that it was the birthplace of a Hindu deity called Ram, a Hindu mob demolished a 16th-century mosque that had stood there. Mr. Advani was present at the time. In the riots that followed, thousands were killed.

What kind of traction Mr. Advani will get from renewing the Ram temple call remains to be seen. Also on Wednesday, a court in Lucknow, near Ayodhya, charged Mr. Advani and several other leaders of his party with inciting the mob that demolished the mosque in 1992.

[indcons]

GK,

You are unnecessarily dragging me into an old flame war. My discussions are with razorocam. There is no need for you to indulge in personal attacks on this thread. I am flagging this post to the Admin Mod because you appear to be unable to understand the rules re: bringing other older discussions into recent unrelated ones.

[Gengis Khan]

Dosnt matter whether the argument is old or new. Your (anti)India views are well known on this forum.

[indcons]

The moderators don't appear to agree with your interpretation of the forum rules (see the deleted comment?). This is another favorite liberal tactic: change the interpretation if you don't like the rules!!

[Gengis Khan]

Hey dude, how about keeping me out of your liberal-conservative bickering? You kinda forget that I am an Indian *FROM INDIA* and have nothing to do with what is actually America's internal politics.

So *YOU*.....carry on with your liberal-conservative squabble (to prove your loyalty to whosoever) and try not to drag me into it.....kapish?

Hah! talk about being more Catholic than the Pope......know what I am talking about ;)

BTW don't recall having written anything about forum rules (or anything about how one should be interpreting them), however I remember having written something about you being a ........ an I'll stick to it.

[scgupta]

Thank you for understanding my sentiments.

RAM-ifications of Indian Local politics has been an outfall of 1000 years of non-RAM-ifications. But should be kept out of politics.

It is more of a reactionary movement to Islamic terrorism than an active anti-non-Hindu movement.

India is just a 50 year old country & birth pangs have been quite big. We have been attacked by Pakistan & China. Yet it is India's land on which Pakistan is sitting and ...... not paying the monthly rent!...(:-)
Yet it was India which was the first country to recognise China as a country.

RAM-ification is just politics. BJP/RSS/VHP don;t have any developmental issues. They should rather spend their effort to make Ayodhya a clean & healthy place in order to get their votes.