Allahabad:
Playing to plan, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh today endorsed a resolution passed by its affiliate, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, on the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. The RSS wants an unambiguous return to Hindutva politics. The BJP is not so sure.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is at the Kumbh mela, which his organisation is using as the launch pad for Hindutva 2014. "Why do we have to plead for a Ram mandir? Because it's an issue involving a temple? This is for re-establishing Indian identity," he said. Mr Bhagwat will attend a gathering of about two lakh priests or sants today, to brief them on next steps.
Chief among those is a fresh demand for the construction of the Ram temple. The VHP set the tone yesterday threatening to launch an agitation if a law to facilitate temple construction is not passed soon.
BJP president Rajnath Singh attended a VHP meet of sants and supported the temple demand. "It is our deep desire to work for a temple...I pray for your blessings for strength to finish the task," he said.
The RSS, which is the ideological mentor of both the VHP and the BJP, has mandated the relaunch of the Hindutva agenda for the general elections next year. It reportedly wants an emphatic return of the BJP on that path and is said to favour dissociating from National Democratic Alliance or NDA allies like the Janata Dal (United) who would hold the party back from this.
The way to do this, the RSS says, is to win enough seats in the general elections and not need the allies at all. Wooing a traditional votebank in the next one year is the way ahead, it says.
Many top leaders in the BJP reportedly see faults in the RSS' hardline plan. The original Hindutva mascot, Narendra Modi, was far away in Delhi yesterday talking to young people about good governance and a new, empowered, young India, when his party president was registering the BJP's commitment to building the Ram temple. ''Vote bank politics has destroyed India. We need development politics,'' said the Gujarat Chief Minister at the prestigious SRCC college.
Senior leaders like Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, and even LK Advani, once a visible part of the Ram temple and Hindutva movement, too now see more benefit in projecting a progressive political party that talks about development.