Advani’s effort on reviving Ayodhya issue seen as a means to get votes by Hindutva grass root
Preetam Sohani
Aug. 7, 2005

BJP must stop using Hindutva to get Hindu votes. Congress must stop using anti-Hinutva to get Muslim votes. Using religion for political gains is going on for a long time. But people in India is ready to rise up and put the politicians in the right spot.

According to media reports, even as BJP president L K Advani attempts to revive the Ayodhya issue aggressively, VHP said Ram temple was a "vote catching device" for politicians and it does not trust any political party.

"For politicians, Ram temple is a vote catching device but for us it is a question of faith", the Sangh Parivar outfit's senior vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore told PTI.

He, however, did not name either BJP or Advani. The RSS is understood to have advised VHP leaders not to make personalised attacks or criticise other Parivar organisations including BJP in public.

The VHP leader was responding to a question on whether VHP would support or seek the support of BJP in its agitation for the construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, in the wake of Advani's recent assertions.

"We have no trust in any political party. They are all on par. We will carry on with the agitation on our own", Kishore, a well-known critic of Advani, said.

Earlier too, the VHP had accused BJP of using the temple card to come to power and attributed its debacle in last year's Lok Sabha elections to the party "abandoning" Hindutva.

The RSS had taken strong exception to the "behavioural misdemeanour" of VHP leaders including its firebrand secretary general Praveen Togadia against Advani and had advised them to exercise restraint.

Declining to comment on the recent ideological controversy between Advani and Sangh Parivar, the VHP leader said the differences, if any, were on Principle and ideology.

"Personally, we all share a good relation", Kishore said recalling that the BJP Chief had held a meeting at the VHP's Karsewakpuram campus in Ayodhya when he visited the temple town after the terrorist attack.

He said the Babri Masjid demolition case, in which he was an accused along with Advani and others, would "serve to strengthen the Ram Janambhoomi movement".

Asked whether VHP would support BJP candidates in the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar, Kerala, West Bengal and other states, he said, "We will support pro-Hindutva candidates constituency-wise. There will not be any general directions to the cadres to support any particular political party. The stress will be on candidates".

Elaborating on VHP's Ayodhya agitation, he said six ''dharam sansads'' (religious parliament) would be organised at Kurukshetra, Gujarat, Tirupati, Allahabad, Puri and Guwahati between January and March next year while ''Ram janmotsavas'' would be held at 10,000 places across the country on Ram Navami to "create awareness among the people on the issue".

The veteran VHP leader also expressed the hope that the title suit pending before the Allahabad High Court would be settled in its favour by next year-end "as the evidence fully backs our claim to the site".

While VHP was not against a negotiated settlement to the vexed issue, it would not initiate any move in this regard, he said.

Advani’s effort on reviving Ayodhya issue seen as a means to get votes by Hindutva grass root
Preetam Sohani
BJP must stop using Hindutva to get Hindu votes.
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