New Delhi, Dec 11 (PTI) Senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar claimed on Saturday that the erstwhile Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government applied all its might to implicate him in cases of so-called saffron terror but failed.

He was addressing an international conference jointly organised by the RSS-affiliated Muslim Rashtriya Manch, Vishwagram and the Forum For Awareness of National Security to deliberate on "Global Terrorism Vs Humanity, Peace and Possibilities".

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The day-long conference at its conclusion passed a resolution demanding that the government ban linking of caste or religion to terror and declare it a punishable offence under the law.

"Caste and religion should not be linked to terror as such linking is exploited by those perpetuating terrorism. It should be banned and made punishable offence under the law. Exploitation of anybody in the name of religion and caste must be stopped, condemned and punished under the law," Kumar said during the passage of the resolution.

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He also appealed to political parties to rise above vote bank politics and "say no to this crime".

"Government of India spent Rs 300-400 crore in the name of 'bhagwa' (saffron) terror case against me. Even after deploying the entire government machinery, they could not get my name listed as accused.... The poor government was then voted out (in 2014 Lok Sabha elections)," he said.

"My name did not figure in the list of either witnesses or accused. But the entire world was told that Indresh ji was involved, that there was a case against him. I have seen such a big lie...," he added.

Referring to this episode, the RSS leader exhorted the participants not to fear about raising their voice against what is wrong.

"When you are honest and standing by the truth and humanity, no body on earth can do any harm to you," he said.

Noting that there won't be any jihad, lynching or communal riots if people pay respect to each other's religion, the international conference in its resolution also demanded that the UN should declare acts of condemning others' religion a crime at global level.

While moving the resolution for its passage, Kumar raised objection to the categoriation of religions as minority and majority in India, calling it "a peculiar situation".

"Religion is for the development of human being, to instill humanity in human beings. Categorising religion as minority and majority is itself inhuman and a mischief. This is basically vote bank politics," he said.

He suggested that such categorisation of religion should not continue as "it has divided our country".

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)