Temple issue strains VHP-BJP relations

NEW DELHI, JUNE 4: With the BJP striking off the Ram Janmabhoomi temple issue from its agenda, at least for the time being, pressure is bu...

NEW DELHI, JUNE 4: With the BJP striking off the Ram Janmabhoomi temple issue from its agenda, at least for the time being, pressure is building on the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to redefine its position vis-a-vis the saffron party.

The question will be on top of the agenda when the VHP’s margadarshak mandal meets at Hardwar next month. It’s not just the sadhu-sants of Ayodhya who are agitated with the BJP for dropping the issue from its plank, but a section within the militant arm of the RSS has launched an intense campaign to sever all links with the BJP.

But the task seems easier said than done. If the VHP indeed cuts off its relations with the BJP, what will be the fate of its members who are Lok Sabha MPs ? “Will Uma Bharati, Jaibhan Singh Pahwaiya, Vinay Katiyar, Yogi Adityanath and Swami Chinmayanand renounce their membership in that eventuality ?” asked a BJP leader.

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According to him, the question was linked to the wider issue of the BJP’s ties with the RSS and its numerous allied organisations. “They are all tied to the RSS with the help of an umbilical cord. It’ll not be easy for the VHP to sever this tie,” he said.

Heading the campaign for a rethink on the VHP’s relations with the Hindutva party is D.B. Rai, former BJP MP from Sultanpur, who was the Faizabad SSP when the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. “When the BJP has dropped its core issues from its ideological plank, why should the VHP continue supporting it?” he asked while speaking to The Indian Express. In all the elections held since 1989, the VHP cadre had lent its wholehearted support to the BJP. Now this cadre is thoroughly disillusioned, he claimed.

Former Union minister Sushma Swaraj’s assertion that the BJP looked at the Ram Janmabhoomi temple issue as a political one has only added fuel to the fire. “It is now clear that, like all other parties, it too, was taking the people for a ride,” a senior VHP leader pointed out.