BJP govt in Maha won't have any problem in banning Sanatan: minister

Amid growing demand for a ban on Sanatan Sanstha whose member was arrested last week in connection with murder of rationalist Govind Pansare, a BJP minister in Maharashtra today said the government would not mind banning it.

Police last week arrested Sameer Gaikwad, an active member of Sanatan Sanstha, an ultra-conservative Hindu outfit.

CPI leader Pansare, 82, and his wife Uma were shot by two youths in February this year near his house in Kolhapur. He died four days later at a Mumbai hospital.

"There will be no political implications if we ban Sanatan Sanstha and so we have no problem banning it. Our only contention is there should be enough proof which fits the criteria laid down by the High Court," a senior state cabinet minister told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

"The kind of Hindutva practised by Sanatan is ritualistic while ours is more scientific. So our agendas do not match at all," he said.

The minister also said that the arrest of a person belonging to a right-wing organisation when a government swearing by Hindutva is in power only meant that police had enough evidence. "If they did not have proof, they would have never arrested him," he said.

Interestingly, Shiv Sena, BJP's ally, vehemently supported Sanatan Sanstha in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana' today, saying the allegation that the organisation was responsible for Pansare's murder was "laughable."