Click to play videoNew Delhi: Seventeen years after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earned the label of a Hindu nationalist party, the party veers away from the Hindutva issue.
The pet issue has been granted just three lines in its election manifesto for General Elections 2009.
That mention too comes as if in passing, as though to only not be nailed for having forsaken it.
The BJP manifesto was released on Ram Navami day which was on Friday, April 3, 2009.
The day reminded the BJP of its teerm Ram Rajya, a Utopian state.
“If there ever existed an idea of an ideal governance in India, it has always been only Ram Rajya, the just rule of Rama,” said BJP leader L K Advani, while releasing the party’s manifesto.
But the party’s manifesto had little or no Ram.
A moderate Advani tried arguing his allies never had any problems with the saffron agenda.
“If our allies ever objected on any issue, we were the first ones to tell that our wish was to have the Rama temple constructed by passing the Bill through the Parliament. They had objections to that too,” Advani added.
So while BJP’s Varun Gandhi spewed venom, the party’s manifesto was polite.
It said that the BJP will explore all possibilities including negotiations and judicial proceedings, to facilitate the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
And there were similar cursory mention of other pet issues such as the Ram Setu, cleaning the revered Ganga, cow protection and abrogation of Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code.
Even the Congress which spoke of a communal BJP twenty four hours ago, targeted the party for blemishes other than Hindutva.
“On the one hand the BJP insults women by pushing them out of restaurants in Mangalore and on the other hand they say they wanted to do something for the girl child,” said Congress leader Kapil Sibal.
Probably the BJP would have stuck to its core agenda if Murli Manohar Joshi had his way.
He even wanted a law to be enacted for temple construction at Ayodhya.
The chairman of the manifesto drafting committee was told categorically that his right wing rhetoric was not acceptable.
The manifesto was delayed as the Advani camp took charge. This camp believed that 1992 (the year that saw the Babri Masjid fall) cannot be replicated in 2009.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
