Bhopal, November 24
As the day of voting to elect Madhya Pradesh’s new assembly draws near, the BJP is sharply veering towards its time-tested plank: Hindutva. Hardly anyone in the party is now talking of roads, power and development issues that were the mainstay of the party’s campaign in the initial days of the run up to the polls.
From L.K. Advani downwards, almost every party functionary is now harping on Hindutva. However, the old Hindutva issues of Ram temple, appeasement of minorities, prosecution of Kashmiri Pandits, abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution et al seems to have gone out of fashion. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur has emerged the new Hindutva mascot.
Some say the party’s switchover to the Hindutva mode has being prompted by a realisation that it is on a shaky wicket. Others say that a pre-decided strategy is being executed talk of other issues in the beginning and build the climax with Hindutva.
Be that as it may, the BJP and other members of the Sangh Parivar have jumped on the Hindutva bandwagon with a vengeance. The VHP is organising “bhajans” in temples to protest against the Sadhvi and her associates being “implicated” in the Malegaon bomb blasts case. The Bajrang Dal is burning effigies of the Maharashtra ATS and the BJP campaigners are breathing fire and brimstone.
In his public meetings, Advani is slamming the UPA government for “torturing the Sadhvi in custody to mobilise Muslim support in the assembly elections”.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh is holding the Congress responsible for creating a specter of Hindu terrorism which, he says, is a contradiction in terms. For a Hindu cannot be a terrorist and vice versa.
The Congress leaders are maintaining a silence on the issue. They are carefully refraining from justifying the Sadhvi”s arrest and its aftermath. If forced to take a stand in interactions with the media, they vaguely talk of letting the law takes its own course.
