'BJP knows how to tackle anti-nationals'

uran: bjp's national vice-president gopinath munde has decided to come out in favour of militant hindutva by warning that if the authorities failed to curb anti-national elements, his party would be compelled to tackle those individuals and organisations not loyal to the country. mr munde announced this at a function where he was presented with a purse of rs 35 lakhs on completion of 25 years in public life.the function at uran on wednesday night was an important development in the history of raigad district which had not shown any support to the bjp. for a small port town like uran, the function was unprecedented owing to its glitter and impressive turnout. bjp's organising secretary for the konkan region raghunath kulkarni said party workers spared no efforts to collect the purse, the first of its kind in raigad. the response was beyond their expectations. expectedly, mr munde declared that he was returning the purse to the district unit for fighting the coming civic elections. mr munde said the maharashtra bjp would raise rs 30 crore from the general public so that it became self-sufficient. the mood of the workers was already upbeat since the uran municipal council has been allotted to the bjp under the seat-sharing formula the party has worked out with the shiv sena. the party was looking for an opportunity to establish its foothold in raigad district, which has been under the domination of the peasants and workers party (pwp), a partner in the democratic front (df) government in maharashtra. no wonder, mr munde obliquely referred to the pwp's alleged intimidatory tactics and thundered that these would not be tolerated by the union government led by the bjp. he was repeatedly cheered, specially when he spoke against international terrorism and pakistan. mr munde castigated the shahi imam of delhi's jama masjid and former janata dal mla nihal ahmed of malegaon. referring to raigad as the place selected by chhatrapati shivaji to set up his capital of hindavi swaraj, mr munde said the legacy of maharashtra was such that people flaunting images of osama bin laden would not be tolerated in this country. ``let the people know what connection you have with laden,'' he challenged mr ahmed to say. repeatedly criticising pakistan, mr munde said the country which had been defeated by india thrice should not dream of another misadventure. ``if pakistan tries to harm india again, it will be annihilated,'' he added. ridiculing chief minister vilasrao deshmukh and deputy chief minister chhagan bhujbal for their alleged inaction in controlling anti-national elements in places like malegaon, mr munde said failure of the government to act decisively would compel the bjp to deal firmly with such elements. ``is desh mein rahana hai to vande mataram kehna hoga,'' he thundered. mr munde said it was tragic that maharashtra government was refusing permission for observing an anti-terrorism day while other states in the country were condemning osama bin laden and his ilk. at least 2,500 bjp workers were arrested for condemning terrorism but people like nihal ahmed were protected although they openly supported laden, he lamented.