You still an RSS man, Mr Vajpayee?

January 1: The Congress on Wednesday took steps to woo the Muslim vote, beginning with a set of five questions to BJP's prime ministerial ca...

January 1: The Congress on Wednesday took steps to woo the Muslim vote, beginning with a set of five questions to BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Atal Behari Vajpayee on the Right wing’s anti-Muslim views.

The questionnaire is the first of what could be a weekly series aimed at Vajpayee and BJP president L K Advani. The idea is to highlight the BJP’s provocative views on Muslims, said Congress spokesperson V N Gadgil.

Yesterday’s queries were: 1) Are you (Vajpayee) still a member of the RSS and subscribe to its ideology.?

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2) Your ideological growth was under Guruji Golwalkar of RSS who has said that people belonging to the minority communities cannot become citizens of India. They can only remain as "honoured guests". Do you agree ?

3) Guruji Golwalkar of RSS had opposed introduction of common civil code. Do you endorse his views?

4) Ashok Singhal of VHP, which is very much a part of the Sangh Parivar, has threatened that if the Muslims do not hand over Kashi and Mathura to Hindus, Babri will be repeated. Do you agree that Singhal should be prosecuted for giving such threats which disturb communal harmony?

And lastly, Govindacharya has described you as a "mukhota" (mask) and a loud speaker of the BJP. Do you subscribe to this image of yours?

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The questions are aimed at embarrassing Vajpayee who is currently having a tough time balancing the moderate views in the BJP with the hardline opinions.

The exercise is also a step towards gaining back the Muslim vote which the Congress had lost after the Babri demolition. Apparently, the Congress manifesto may take the party’s regret over the demolition a step ahead.

Some leaders like Arjun Singh are keen that the regret be stepped up to an apology to the Muslims for the demolition. That, however, has yet to be finalised.

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