Sambalpur (Orissa), Aug 05: Samata Party's Orissa unit chief Bhabani Shankar Hota today said that the state government should not ban the 'trishul diksha' programme of VHP if it did not violate the law of the land. "It is our considered opinion that one has the right to undertake any programme subject to the sanction of law. There should not be any controversy in such matters and the law should be allowed to take its own course," he said in a letter faxed to chief minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday.

The people should not be engaged in unwanted and uncalled for debate, he said.

Hota was referring to the reported statement of Praveen Bhai Togadia, international general secretary of VHP at Bhubaneswar on Saturday to undertake ‘trishul diksha’ programme in Orissa in the near future.
Referring to BJD secretary general Damodar Rout's statement that the Orissa Chief Minister as president of BJD was for secularism, Hota said it did not pertain to the issue of secularism or communalism nor legality or otherwise of the programme to be launched by the VHP in Orissa.


Bureau Report