BJP chief sends VHP a stinker

Signalling tension between the BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, party president M Venkaiah Naidu today issued a written statement slamming...

Signalling tension between the BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, party president M Venkaiah Naidu today issued a written statement slamming recent 8216;8216;utterances8217;8217; by some VHP leaders.

And in perhaps the strongest condemnation of the VHP by a BJP president so far, he said their statements seem to be 8216;8216;influenced by the religious intolerance and extremism from across the border.8217;8217;

And not only do these 8216;8216;severely compromise our battle against terrorism,8217;8217; said Naidu, these also 8216;8216;give the international community a pretext to bracket us with forces of religious fundamentalism.8217;8217;

The immediate provocation for the unprecedented statement, issued from Godda in Jharkhand8212;where the BJP chief is on tour8212;is VHP working president Ashok Singhal8217;s remarks in Lucknow on Saturday that 8216;8216;the BJP had suffered because of every decision of8217;8217; Vajpayee. Singhal is said to have alleged that the Prime Minister had lost the trust of the Sangh Parivar for having failed to take any firm step to combat terrorism. Nor had the Prime Minister, according to him, done anything to remove hurdles in the way of the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Countered Naidu: 8216;8216;With due respect to Shri Singhalji, I have to state that the BJP completely and categorically disagrees with his criticism of the Prime Minister on the issues of Ayodhya, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and the fight against terrorism.8217;8217;

Saying that the PM8217;s decisions were not personal decisions but 8216;8216;collective decisions of the Government8230;where the Prime Minister, assisted by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, has followed a consultative process,8217;8217; Naidu criticized Singhal8217;s remarks on Ayodhya.

8216;8216;The BJP, too, wants the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya,8217;8217; he wrote, 8216;8216;but it cannot be built by disregarding the law of the land and by following a path of confrontation.8217;8217;

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Praising the Government8217;s success in holding polls in Jammu and Kashmir and its diplomatic isolation of Pakistan, Naidu said: 8216;8216;I feel constrianed that some of the utterances of VHP leaders give the impression that they are influenced by the religious intolerance and extremism from acorss the border. These utterances severely compromise our battele against terrorism and give the international community a pretext to bracket us with forces of religious fundamentalism, which is totally alien both to India8217;s ethos and to our own phiosophy of Hindutva.8217;8217;

He went on to urge 8216;8216;VHP leaders to think twice before criticising the leadership of the Government and the party.8217;8217;

This statement, seeking to equate the VHP with Islamic fundamentalists, far from leading to a cease-fire between the two sides is likely to fan the fire. The VHP leadership is expected to return the compliments.

BJP sources said that Advani and Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi may soon approach RSS Sarsanghchalak K S Sudarshan to buy peace with the VHP. But whether Sudarshan can help is anybody8217;s guess.

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Not on the best of terms with Vajpayee, the RSS itself has taken a totally divergent position on Jammu and Kashmir propping up its own group, the Jammu State Morcha, to drum up support for trifurcation of the state.

Its three affiliates, Swadesh Jagran Manch, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh are currently engaged in a nationwide agitation against the Government8217;s economic reforms policies.