More than the formal charge of ‘‘conspiring to overawe the state’’, it is the supreme public indifference to his plight that should worry VHP international general secretary Pravin Togadia and his brethren in the Sangh Parivar. Togadia has been languishing in the Central Jail of this historic town for the past four days and was remanded to judicial custody till April 30 on a plethora of grave charges yesterday — but not even the proverbial dog here barks. In fact, a bunch of mangy canines lie scattered under the shade of giant neem trees along the pathway inside the jail compound, epitomising the utter apathy to the VHP’s antics that marks the mood in Ajmer today. No one seems to know or care that the self-styled supreme leader of the Hindu cause is in their midst. The town, wilting under the harsh April sun, goes about its business as usual — young Muslim men scour the railway platform in search of pilgrims headed for the famous Dargah; cabbies vie for passengers to the equally famous Pushkar, and the district collector Niranjan Arya is taken aback that a journalist should descend from Delhi when ‘‘everything is normal, there is no tension at all’’ in the town. The VHP, which made loud noises yesterday and threatened to launch huge protests throughout the state, is running scared, at least here in Ajmer, the epicentre of the Rajasthan government’s crackdown on the organization. The VHP office in the Krishnaganj area of the town was raided on April 12 and 650 so-called ‘trishuls’ confiscated. There was not a soul in the office today, and a neighbour said most VHP leaders prefer to congregate in Hotel Aaram. But with the police keeping a close watch on their activities, there was little rest to be had at Hotel Aaram. The hotel proprietor, a VHP activist, is ‘‘absconding’’, and most of his regular guests are either in hiding or lying low. VHP leader Giriraj Kishore is camping in the RSS office here and Ashok Singhal may arrive tomorrow and only then will a decision be taken on the VHP’s future course of action, said Togadia’s counsel and former BJP MP, Onkar Singh Lakhawat. The Ashok Gehlot government’s decision to take on the VHP has clearly created confusion in the ranks of the Sangh Parivar. The obvious lack of spontaneous mass support seems to have led to a rethink in their ranks. Lakahwat claimed that the VHP was not taking to the streets because ‘‘we want to disprove the government’s allegation that our trishul diksha programme has caused any tension in the state.’’ But the VHP isn’t even clear whether they should first seek legal remedy or go for mass protests or lie low till Togadia is out. That the BJP, a far stronger force than the VHP in this area, is not very enthusiastic about the issue was clear from the fact that state president Vasundhara Raje has preferred to stay back in Delhi. According to Lakhawat, she told him that let the VHP first decide its future course of action ‘‘after that we will decide what to do.’’ Significantly, RSS general secretary Mohan Bhagwat also passed through Ajmer today, en route to a Bajrang Dal camp being held in nearby Nasirabad which Togadia inaugurated last Sunday and Singhal is slated to address tomorrow. Singhal, Kishore and Bhagwat are likely to finalise the next stage of their campaign tomorrow, but without any public enthusiasm for the VHP or sympathy for Togadia, any hope of repeating Gujarat in the deserts of Rajasthan seems a mirage.
