Skip the bus, take the tank: VHP to Vajpayee

Acharya Dharmendra, a member of the VHP’s top decision-making body, the Margdarshak Mandal, who moved the resolution, used the occasion to take on the Prime Minister. He ridiculed Vajpayee’s decision to undertake a bus journey to Lahore to hold talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, asked him to declare a war on Pakistan and use even nuclear weapons.

He said that only support from Hindus could ensure Vajpayee’sstability. "Visit Pakistan by all means. But it would be good if you visit Ayodhya first," said Acharya Dharmendra. "And why should you go in a bus? Go in a tank. Use Bofors guns. Use the bombs which you tested in Pokharan. What for are these? And why go only to Lahore? Go to Rawalpindi, Bannu, Dera Gazi Khan. You allowed the cricket match. But what is needed is a final match on the battlefield."

Acharya Dharmendra alleged that the Vajpayee government was trying to please people whom even Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru could not please. "Your agenda could change, but the agenda of Hindu saints will not change," he cautioned, and then remarked, "What is your problem over the Hindu agenda? The sants will give you the strength to rule for ever," he said. He claimed that Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel – who visited the Dharma sansad earlier in the day for the "darshan of sants" – was made Chief Minister by the sadhus. Later, he was removed by apostates (adharmis), but the sants again made him the chiefminister, Acharya Dharmendra said.

Later, VHP working president Ashok Singhal tried to soften the blow, saying the organisation did not agree with "all that Acharya Dharmendra had said". The Vajpayee government could not do what it wanted to do because it was dependent on allies, Singhal said, adding, "We want this government to continue because this is the first government which is not against us."Interestingly, while the Prime Minister has reportedly desired that next year should be celebrated as the year of the Christ, the VHP’s resolution asked Hindus to celebrate the beginning of the next "Hindu century" by hoisting saffron flags on housetops on March 18, the Hindu New Year.

The Dharma Sansad also passed resolutions demanding, a ban on cow slaughter, opposing the construction of Tehri and other dams on the Ganga, urging for a boycott of foreign goods and promotion of swadeshi, asking Hindus to celebrate the 300th anniversary for the foundation of Khalsa, and opposing the MP government’s move to takeover management of Hindu religious shrines.