BJP MLA compares Sanatan Sanstha with SIMI, seeks ban for ‘spreading terror’

Sanatan Sanstha, headquartered at Ramnathi Ashram in North Goa district, is under the scanner since the arrest of Sameer Gaikwad in connection with Pansare's killing earlier this year.

BJP MLA Vishnu Surya Naik Wagh has demanded that the Goa government ban the Sanatan Sanstha and take stringent action against it members.

Stating that police investigations have established that the Sanstha and its members have links with the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi, Naik said such organisations cannot be allowed to operate in any state. “In any democracy, we can counter one philosophy with another, but not with violence. If any organisation or individual does so, then they are terrorists because they want to create fear in the mind of their opponents. Probably elated over their acquittal in the 2009 Madgaon blast case, the Sanstha spread their tentacles in the entire state,” Wagh said.

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He added that Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar must order a probe into the Sanstha’s activities. “The state government must first ban the organisation and then probe it,” he said.

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Drawing a comparison between the Sanstha and Karnataka-based Shri Ram Sene, St Andre MLA Wagh said Sene founder Pramod Muthalik was banned from entering Goa even though his outfit didn’t carry out any radical activity in the state.

“They were invoved in one incident in 2009 (Mangalore pub attack), but the Sene or Pramod Muthalik did not kill anyone. They were just blabbering, yet we came together to seek a ban on their entry. So, when the members of the Sanstha are accused of killing so many intellectuals, we cannot allow them to be function from their headquarters in Goa,” Vishnu said.

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