First it was PM, now even the DPM is too soft, ‘naive’ for VHP

After Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, it was the turn of Sangh Parivar idol L K Advani to earn the wrath of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (...

After Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, it was the turn of Sangh Parivar idol L K Advani to earn the wrath of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) here today. The provocation being his speech in the Lok Sabha last evening in which he ruled out India ever becoming a Hindu state and vowed to protect minorities in the country.

Both VHP international president Vishnu Hari Dalmia and working president Ashok Singhal charged him with the appeasement of minorities and claimed that his statement ‘‘would send a wrong signal at this juncture.’’

Dalmia did deliver a rather unkind cut by saying that ‘‘Advani does not know about Hindutva’’ and then, as if to educate him, went on to say that ‘‘it is synonymous to secularism. It stands for Sarva Dharma Sambhava (equal respect for all religions).’’

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While VHP leaders were gunning for Advani, help came to him from the RSS. Sangh spokesman Ram Madhav, when reached at Hyderabad over the telephone, told The Indian Express: ‘‘Advaniji is an old member of our organisation. We think that he did not talk of India never becoming a Hindu state in the way the media has projected it. What he perhaps meant was that India would never become a theocratic state. He was talking in terms of the statecraft.’’

Madhav claimed that the ‘‘RSS believes that India always was and is a Hindu nation in terms of its culture and traditions.’’

When asked about the VHP criticism of Advani’s stress on the protection of minorities, Madhav said, ‘‘Their protection is fundamental to Hinduism. Protection of all is basic to their value-system. We look at all other religions with respect. However, it is for the minorities to earn the goodwill of the majority community.’’

Back to the VHP. Singhal said, ‘‘There was no need for Advaniji to talk of the protection of minorities. It would send a wrong message and cause damage. It smacks of an appeasement of minorities. This does not show the BJP as a party with a difference.’’

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He laced his comments with sarcasm: ‘‘Advaniji is a scholar (vidvaan). He is playing with words. At the present juncture, the statement would send a wrong signal.’’

Dalmia said Advani had referred to the security of minorities as a key issue in Gujarat and asked: ‘‘Is the security of the majority a non-issue?’’

He once again dubbed Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh anti-Hindu and announced that the VHP would shortly meet President A P J Abdul Kalam and give him a memorandum, urging him to ‘‘restrain’’ the CEC.