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Agnivesh flays Baba's remarks
Special Correspondent
Silence on Nithari killings decried
`Comments on Telangana unnecessary'
Arya Samaj leader to write a letter to Sai Baba
Swami Agnivesh
HYDERABAD: Noted social activist and president of All-India Arya Samaj Swami Agnivesh has criticised spiritual leader Saibaba for his remarks favouring an integrated State.
"He talked something that was unnecessary while ignoring an urgent issue -- the killing of innocent children at Nithari," Agnivesh said at the dharna that he led against the killings at Indira Park here on Wednesday.
Swami Agnivesh lamented that all dharmacharyas, irrespective of their spiritual practices, should have condemned the carnage, but Sai Baba was silent. Instead, he raised his voice against a separate Telangana. Though he was a guru practising dharma, his silence led to doubts over his credentials.
Not a political leader
"As he is not a political leader he should not make such comments," he said, adding that he would address a letter conveying his protest to Saibaba.
He was also critical of leaders belonging to other religions for not reacting to the killings.
Even the five crore people who took the holy dip in Ganges as part of Kumbhmela did not express sympathy for the victims. Neither did the Hajis who returned from Makkah.
Resignation sought
The Arya Samaj leader was particularly critical about the President and Prime Minister not visiting Nithari, a place so close to Delhi.
He demanded the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
As president of World Council of Arya Samaj, Swami Agnivesh said, he would take the initiative to involve leaders of all religions in an agitation against Nithari.
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Andhra Pradesh
Indian spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba, 81, found himself embroiled in a political row after his recent remarks characterising the partition of the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) as a "great sin". 

On a recent visit to Chennai he publicly spoke out against the proposed partition of India's fourth largest state, calling such a move a "mahapapam" (great sin) and claimed that there was no demand from the people to bifurcate AP into Telangana and Andhra states. 

The comments caused an outcry among pro-Telangana activists who angrily voiced their protests in street marches and attacks on the Sivam building, the Baba's temple in Hyderabad, which was staffed by a few devotees. Shouting anti-Sai Baba slogans, the protestors pulled down a large picture of the holy man and trampled on it before taking it outside and setting it on fire. An effigy of the Baba was also reported to have been burnt, and twenty protestors were arrested following several police complaints.