Silent protest in Jhumari Tiliya over attack on Jain Monk

Daily Pioneer, Ranchi
8th January 2013

 Women, girls and men in large numbers took out a silent procession in Jhumari Tiliya on Monday to register protest against the attack on a jain muni, Prabal Sagarji Maharaj in Juna Gargh in Gujrat on the first day of this year.

Organised by Jain community, the procession started from Jain Mandir situated near docter gali of Jhumari Tilaiya and went up to Purnima talkies, backed to Jain Mandir.

The protesters held boards and placards. All small and big shops remained shut till 1 pm. The procession  was morally supported by peoples from different walk of life.

President of Jain Samaj Manik Chhand Shetty, Sect Sushil Chabara Jay Kumar Gangawal,Vimal Suraj Pawdilal Lalit Suri, district president of Marwari Youth Manch Himanshu Kedia secretary Sanjay Sharma Rajesh Jain,ward Parshad Pinki Jain Rotary District president Jay kumar Gangwal, president of Rotary Kupulse Jhumari Tilaiaya Ritesh Duggar were in also with the procession.

A group of office bearerswent to DC office and submitted a memorandum to Koderma DC Rajesh kumar Sharma in this regard.

Modi and Singhal: Pro-Jains?

Junagadh, December 7 All India Sadhu Samaj president (Gujarat Chapter) Mahant Gopalanand has come down heavily on Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Ashok Singhal for his derogatory remarks on the sadhus of Gujarat, who have been tacitly campaigning against the Narendra Modi government.

Gopalanand said in a statement that while the VHP has been playing politics in the name of Hindutva, it has also misused the sadhus under the banner of Dharma Sansad and Hindu Jagaran.

He said the VHP under the leadership of Singhal, has mustered crores of rupees and gold bricks in the name of constructing a Ram temple at Ayodhya, but it never made the account public, and since it has failed to construct the temple, the VHP should be considered as an anti-national, anti-society and anti-religious organisation.
"Ashok Shinghal himself is a Jain and in spite of being a Jain, he is the leader of a Hindu religious organisation (VHP). He (Ashok Shinghal) never bothered about Jain sadhus," Gopalanand said in his statement.
He said though the foundation-laying ceremony of the ambitious Girnar ropeway project in Junagadh has been completed thrice, it could not get started, because of the opposition of the Jains to this project. "This is because Jains are against this project and, Singhal and Modi are pro-Jains," he said.

He said during the last five years, many sadhus, including several VHP office-bearers have been murdered, but none of the accused have been convicted or punished by law. "Why is the VHP not raising this issue of sadhus' murder under the BJP rule? There are number of slaughter houses functioning in Gujarat, but why is the VHP keeping quiet?" he said.

Gopalanand declared his support to Sarsa-based sadhu Avichaldas for the latter's announcement to start an agitation and mobilise sadhus from across Gujarat against Singhal. Gopalanand said the VHP is playing dirty politics in the name of Hindu Jagaran and looting the country and the religious people.