Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JD)

Mangaluru, Apr 11: "It is the fear of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha that made the British run away from India and hence we got Independence," said Chandra Prakash Kaushik, national president of Akhila Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha.

Addressing media persons in the city here on Monday April 11, Kaushik said, "The Hindu Mahasabha as a political party played a key role in the independence struggle. Hindu Mahasabha as extremists created fear in the hearts of the British though bloodshed. Independence did not come through soft-natured moderates. We lost about 72,000 members of the Sabha in the freedom struggle and about 64,000 of our members were imprisoned."

When asked about some unaffiliated persons reportedly carrying out activities in the name of Hindu Mahasabha, he said, "We have no contact with those persons. We do not know why they are doing that. At this moment I want to say that only we represent the Mahasabha and not any other person."

National vice-president of the Sabha Dr Rajesh Ranjan said, "The sole objective of the Mahasabha is the formation of Hindu nation. It does not mean chasing out people of other religions from the country, but protecting the ancient Hindu culture.

"We are the same people who have been fighting for the Ram Janmabhoomi. Governments may change but we will keep fighting for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. We have won the legal cases till now and we hope to win even in the Supreme Court," he added.

When asked about the association of Mahasabha with RSS, he said, "RSS was formed by Hindu Mahasabha. We funded them and till our then vice-president Hegdevarji was alive, we used to work together. Now we have lost all connections with RSS due to differences in ideologies."

The new state president of the mahasabha Ambika Nayak said, "Even though I worked for the BJP for sometime I was not a party worker. Unofficially I was called the vice-president in the Udupi district unit. But from two years I have been fully associated with the Mahasabha and hence I have been elected as its state president."

When asked about the future of former state president of the Mahasabha Swami Pranavananda who was expelled in December 2015, she said that the national committee leaders will decide about his future in the organization.

"Kamlesh Tiwari is Mahasabha activist"

In response to a question, the national president confirmed that Kamlesh Tiwari who is alleged to have made derogatory comments about Islam in West Bengal sometime ago is a Hindu Mahasabha activist.

State vice-president Shree Shravan Kumar, district president Naveen Kumar, vice-president Chetan Mallya and secretary N P Shenoy were present.