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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad international vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore on Monday welcomed the Tamil Nadu's government's promulgation of an ordinance banning forcible conversions.
Kishore said, "The Tamil Nadu government [led by J Jayalalithaa] should be praised for stopping forcible conversions, which the central government should have done."
When pointed out that the VHP was a constituent of the Sangh Parivar like the Bharatiya Janata Party, Kishore said, "I am not a spokesman of the BJP. It did not stop the conversions. It is wrong. There should be no forcible conversions."
"We don't expect the welfare of Hindus from this government [of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee]," he said. "But the Gujarat government [of Narendra Modi] is a Hindutva government."
"The BJP has not done anything for Hindutva under pressure from the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance," he said.
Asked to give his opinion about Vajpayee and the Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Kishore said, "They are two sides of the same coin."
He denied a media report that alleged the VHP had received gold bricks as party contribution.
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