PATNA, 18 August 2003 — Former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, the RJD supremo, strongly defended Rabri Devi government’s decision not to allow entry into the state to two senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders on two successive days.
Talking exclusively to Arab News here yesterday, Laloo said anybody trying to disturb communal amity in the state would be sternly dealt with.
The Bihar government packed off Acharya Giriraj Kishore to Delhi on Saturday from the Patna airport itself, just a day after the parishad’s high profile leader, Praveen Togadia was meted out a similar treatment.
Laloo Yadav said communal forces were hell-bent upon turning Bihar, a symbol of communal harmony, into Gujarat. “How can we silently watch them carry out their sinister designs,”he said.
The RJD leader said the Rabri government would continue its campaign against the VHP and other Sangh Parivar leaders and turn them back whenever they tried to force their entry into Bihar. “If they persist in their misadventure they will be put behind bars in Beur Central Jail in Patna, in rooms without fans,” he warned.
On Saturday afternoon, VHP Vice President Acharya Giriraj Kishore, who had arrived here by an Indian Airlines flight from Delhi en route to Muzaffarpur, where he was scheduled to address a state-level party workers conference, was not even allowed to enter the airport terminal building.
