The VHP has flayed the state government for the preventive detention of VHP activists on Sunday night in Surat. The Surat police took into custody VHP and Bajrang Dal cadres as a precautionary step ahead of Monday's bandh call given by the VHP. "The VHP is condemning the pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu mindset of the state government," said Ranchhod Bharwad, joint general secretary of state VHP, in a press statement.
Niral Shah, secretary of VHP's South Gujarat unit, said: "The state government has exposed its anti-Hindu mindset by arresting almost 60 workers of VHP." However, senior leaders of VHP were not willing to utter a word against the government. "I will not enter into the issue. It is a matter of South Gujarat unit of VHP," said Kaushik Mehta, general secretary of state VHP. "The regional unit intervenes in the issue if it is related to the whole region," he added.
Bharwad, who issued the statement, however did give any straight answer when asked if relations between the state government and the VHP had strained.
