Mangalore : The District unit of the BJP staged a protest in front of the DC office in Mangalore on January 24, Thursday to strongly condemn the statement made by Union Minister of State for Home Susheel Kumar Shindhe  that the RSS and the BJP were patronizing Hindu terrorism through their programmes.

The BJP has demanded the dismissal of Shindhe from the cabinet and also urged that both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi should tender an  apology for the minister’s statement.

Addressing the protestors, several BJP leaders including MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, District BJP President Padmanabha Kottari  described the allegations of the minister as baseless and also dubbed it as irresponsible considering the fact that such a statement has been made in the presence of the prime minister and Congress President. They also said the home minster has offended Hindu sentiments and added there was no term called terrorism in the history of Hinduism. They said the allegations of saffron terrorism at a time when the nation was celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda has deeply hurt the sentiments of all Indians.

The agitators also requested the President to  take the issue seriously.

Several leaders including Rukmaya Poojari, Srikar Prabhu,Rajgopal Rai, Umanath Kotian, Chandrahas Uchil, Monappa Bhandari, MLC and Chandrahas Ullal took part in the protest.