By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net,
Bandora (Goa): In the back drop of arrest of a member of the Hindutva group Sanatan Sanstha on charges of his involvement in the daylight murder of Govind Pansare in Kolhapur, the Villagers of Bandora, where the organisation’s headquarters is located have served a seven-day Ultimatum to Goa government to ban the group, failing which they have threatened to start mass agitation.
Saurabh Lotlikar, President of Ramnath Yuvak Sangh, on Wednesday had claimed that he has support of majority people for a demand to ban Sanatan Sanstha and shut down the Sanatan Ashram at Bandora.
In a Press Conference Saurabh Lotlikar who was accompanied by the Panch of Bandora Village, Sharmila, and some elderly people from the village issued a statement giving a seven-day ultimatum to the BJP ruled Goa government.
“We are also Hindus. We don’t need organisations like Sanatan to tell us what Hinduism is,” Lotlikar told reporters according to a report published on GoaNews.com website.
He also alleged that Sanatan teaches ‘something else’ in the name of Hinduism, which the villagers are opposed to.
He also claimed that not a single villager of Bandora is a Sanatan Sanstha member while its headquarters is situated in their village.
Lotlikar also recalled police finding records of Sanatan Ashram borrowing 1000 condoms from the local health centre in 2009, when they searched the Ashram following a bomb blast in Margao.
“What condoms have to do with spiritualism”, he asked.
The villagers have also appealed to all the political parties to support their demand of banning Sanatan Sanstha in Goa.
Lotlikar also said the villagers have come forward to voice out their protest against Sanatan while PWD minister Sudin Dhawalikar, the local MLA, is silent on the issue.
Once the deadline is over, he said the first rally would be held in Ponda city, which would then spread throughout Goa.
Meanwhile, the Goa chief minister, Laxmikant Parsekar has ruled out ban on Sanatan Sanstha in Goa.
A demand in this regard was made by his own Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vishnu Wagh on Monday.
“You cannot blame the whole organisation because one of its members is suspected to be involved in a murder case. Vishnu Wagh has not spoken to me personally. I have read it only in the media. The case has happened in Maharashtra and not in Goa. We have to thus wait for its findings and take a decision accordingly,” said Parsekar.
In 2009, many Goa residents were angered when members of the Sanstha were implicated in blasts that went off on Diwali eve near a huge gathering of Hindu revelers for the hugely popular Narakasura effigy contests.
The demand to ban Sanatan Sanstha has also been echoing in Maharashtra after killing of rationalists Govind Pansare while investigating agencies in Maharashtra are studying the alleged links between the members of Sanatan Sanstha with the killings of Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar.