Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) general secretary Pravin Togadia, one of the architects of the Narendra Modi victory in Gujarat, turned to the Centre today and asked the BJP to change its ‘‘ideology and organisational composition.’’ Lest the party should take his word lightly, he declared that ‘‘new political forces will soon take over’’ in case the party failed to heed him.‘‘An upheaveal is approaching,’’ Togadia said at a press conference, without delineating what he was up to. This upheaval could imply a churning within the BJP or a re-incarnation of the Jana Sangh.Only last week, Togadia had told The Indian Express, that ‘‘in Gujarat, the BJP is the VHP and the Congress is the BJP of the Vajpayee brand.’’ Today, he shrewdly clubbed the Congress with the BJP to call for an ideological and organisational change, but was clearly addressing the BJP.Leaving nobody in doubt that he meant business, the VHP leader said, ‘‘Abhimanyu mara nahin hai, Gujarat mein jeet gaya hai. Asli Mahabharat to Dilli mein racha jayega.’’ (Abhimanyu has not been killed, he has won in Gujarat. The stage for the real Mahabharat will be set in Delhi).He went on to assert: ‘‘We want ideology. We would confront whosoever discards it (hum us se bhid jayenge).’’ The VHP would only back a party committed to Hindutva. ‘‘Therefore, we have no commitment to support the NDA.’’ The VHP would soon galvanise and expand its 2 million cadres to 1 crore across the country, he said, and extend support to ‘‘whosoever is with the Hindus.’’ Togadia said the basis for the VHP support to the BJP in Gujarat was Hindutva. ‘‘We will not let Gujarat deviate from the Hindutva agenda.’’ When asked what he expected from Narendra Modi, he said, ‘‘We have been childhood friends. He knows what we want.’’He said that he agreed with the BJP that India can never be a theocratic state. ‘‘It was and is a Hindu Rashtra but not everyone accepts it. We would make everyone in the country acknowledge it in two years..The status of Muslims in the Hindu Rashtra would be the same as that of Hindus in Pakistan or slightly better.’’ He called for a dismemberment of Pakistan, for, that alone would bring an end to terrorism.He listed the VHP agenda, involving the role of the state, as the ‘‘liberation’’ of Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya, anti-conversion legislation, cow protection, common civil code, an end to Haj subsidy, abrogation of Article 370, ouster of Bangaldeshi infiltrators and a ban on madrasas run by Ahl-e-Hadees, Dawat-ul-Islami and Tableegh Jamaat. He demanded a replacement of the ‘‘violent doctrine of Marxism’’ in educational curricullum with the ‘‘tolerance’’ of Vedas and an end to subsidies for haj.
