The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Wednesday accused the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Orissa of working under "pressure" from missionary elements and the Centre to protect real "killers" of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and demanded a central law to ban religious conversion.
"Failure of the state government becomes more pronounced in its inability to arrest the murderers of swamiji. The state government, under the influence of missionary elements and central government, is trying to protect real perpetrators by bringing in the Maoist angle," RSS joint general secretary Madan Das told reporters in Bhubhaneshwar.
Charging the state government and Centre with playing a "partisan and dubious" role in handling the situation after Saraswati's killing, Das alleged that "under pressure from pseudo-secularists and Christian lobbyists, they ( governement) unleashed a reign of terror and indulged in indiscriminate arrests of innocent people, slapping false case against them."
Demanding immediate arrest of culprits and conspirators behind Swami's killing, Das said, "repressive measures employed by police should be stopped and those arrested on flimsy and false charges must be released forthwith."
Terming illegal conversion as the root cause of unrest in Kandhamal, he said the violence that followed Saraswati's killing was due to "missionary-infused" socio-economic rivalry between the Kandh tribals and converted Panas.
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