We are only returning to our forgotten Hindutva agenda: Vinay Katiyar

Santosh Kumar Pathak

New Delhi, June 25 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party, which secured back-to-back wins in two Lok Sabha polls and is continuing its winning spree in the Assembly elections also, is becoming stronger and its base is expanding rapidly.

Addressing diplomats from various countries recently, BJP president J. P. Nadda had claimed that with 18 crore primary members, the BJP has become the world's largest party.

Virtually addressing a meeting of the party's office bearers in Jaipur last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that currently, 18 states in the country are ruled by the BJP. The party has more than 1300 MLAs.

However at the same time, he had said that this is the time for the BJP to set a target for the next 25 years and work continously to achieve it.

In the midst of this victory march of the BJP, the Opposition is saying that the BJP's Hindutva agenda has changed and this neo-Hindutva agenda is far more aggressive.

Denying the allegations and terming them wrong and baseless, Vinay Katiyar, who was closely associated with the Ram Mandir movement, has said that "we are only returning to our forgotten Hindutva agenda".

Talking to IANS, Katiyar said, "The Hindutva agenda is the same and there is no change in it. Yes, there were some old things which were lying dormant, they are being revived."

The BJP is doing the job and it is correct, he added.

Whatever Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been doing is right but the opposition is just doing propaganda, he added.

Earlier, it seemed that Hindutva has been forgotten, now things are being revamped to change this concept.

"Hindutva is our way of life, style of working and we are doing our work, there is no need to fear from any other community. Hindus are waking up. BJP is winning due to the hard work of the party activists and it is doing its work. If this is hurting anyone, what can the BJP do about it," he said.

The VHP's national spokesman Vijay Shankar Tiwari, who made the Ram Mandir movement a mass movement, told IANS: "The one who talks about Vedas, Shastras, Smriti texts, Upanishads, Mahabharata and the Gita, he is a Hindu and one who believes in them is a Hindutvawadi."

On the charges levelled by some sections of the minority communities, Tiwari said the earlier governments used to appease them but now the Hindus have become vocal and this is bothering them.

RSS leader Rajiv Tuli claimed that since the time of former RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras, there has been no change in the party's agenda, it has been continuing.

During an event in Delhi in 2018, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had said Kashi and Mathura are not on the RSS agenda and had recently again reiterated his stand.

He said that under special circumstances, the Sangh had to join in the Ramjanmabhoomi movement on the orders of seers.

Rajiv Tuli added, "People are talking about bulldozer thing, among other issues again and again, but this is not aggressive Hindutva. It totally depends on the government how it wants to establish the rule of the law."

"It is true that Hindus who have been inactive till now are becoming active but it has nothing to do with the bulldozer or any other campaign.

"Those who don't want to follow the law, they react to the new steps taken by the state government, take to the streets and create a ruckus, show their strength, try to frighten the majority community... Hindus will not get aggressive but retaliation has been a sanatani tradition. However, Hindus are basically peaceful and harmonious," he added.