New Delhi: For the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Godhra train burning, the Akshardham temple attack in Gujarat and “Ram bhakts” being fired upon at Ayodhya in 1992 are all cases of “mob lynching” of Hindus.

In a counter to the letter written by a section of the intelligentsia and celebrities to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the chant Jai Shri Ram being used as a tool to intimidate minorities, the VHP Friday listed these incidents as instances of violence “against Hindus”.

The organisation listed “84 such cases across the country between 1966 and 2019”. The recent case of vandalism of a temple at New Delhi’s Chandni Chowk has also been included in the list of cases of mob lynching.

Also on the list is the terror attack at the Akshardham Temple complex at Gandhinagar in 2002. “Attack by Islamic terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba and they killed 30 people and injured more than 80,” states the list which is part of the organisation’s magazine, the Hindu Vishwa.

The VHP has also highlighted the Ankit Saxena murder case, which saw the Delhi youth killed by the family of his Muslim girlfriend in February last year.

‘Liberals defaming India’

The special edition of the magazine called ‘Mob lynching — a conspiracy’ was released by VHP working president Alok Kumar Friday.

“We will continue to expose the so-called liberals who indulge in disturbing and destroying the social fabric of the country,” he said. “Mob lynching is not a character that can be associated with India.”

According to the VHP, some “anti-nationals” resort to violent protests to “defame” Hindu society and the country. “Out of the 49 who wrote a letter to the PM, 25 are from West Bengal, a state where Hindus are tortured and are punished for chanting Jai Shri Ram,” said Vinod Bandal, spokesperson, VHP. “Why have they kept quiet on this?”

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