Alleging maltreatment meted out to Mahant Parmahans Das after his arrest from the site of his hunger strike for demanding Ram temple construction, Antarashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP) chief Pravin Togadia lashed out at the Yogi government saying the he was denied permission to visit the ailing seer raising. “I am a doctor and the seer is admitted to a hospital. I was denied permission to visit him. The stand of the hospital administration raises many questions,” Togadia told ‘The Pioneer’ after being denied audience with the ailing seer by SGPGI administration in Lucknow on Tuesday.
Togadia said that the doctors told him that Mahant Parmahans Das was serious. “How can a person, who was on hunger strike, be serious after 24 hours of his admission to the hospital? There is something fishy. I believe he was maltreated in police custody or was beaten up. Since I am a doctor and would come to diagnose his problem, I was, therefore, denied permission to visit the seer,” Togadia said.
Mahant Parmahans Das, a priest in Tapaswi Chhawni temple in Ayodhya, was on a hunger strike since October 1 and was forcibly taken in an ambulance and detained by police on Sunday night. Das had been demanding construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Das was arrested after Urban Development Minister Satish Mahana visited the seer on Sunday and asked him to end the strike but the talks did not materialise. “I requested Mahant Paramhans to break his fast. I went there as as an emissary of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath but he refused to listen to me,” Mahana told this reporter.
On the other hand, Togadia said that the Yogi and Modi governments were hell bent on demoralising people who were asking for the construction of Ram temple. “For 32 years, Modi, Yogi and I have been toeing the same line and have been demanding construction of temple at Ayodhya. But after Modi and Yogi came to power, they have started muzzling people’s voice for demanding the construction of the temple,” Togadia said.