Give up Hindutva, RSS ideologue taunts BJP

Top RSS ideologue MG alias Baburao Vaidya has criticised the BJP for its “inconsistency” over Hindutva, telling the party to abandon the plank.

In his column for the Marathi daily Tarun Bharat, Vaidya wrote: “After the 1984 [poll] debacle, the party raised the issue of Hindutva and came closer to power. But it failed to sustain it. That was because the leaders had no patience and conveniently forgot Hindutva’s basic principles.”

He warned the BJP that if it did not toe the Hindutva line, its relationship with the RSS would be on the block. “If the BJP gives up Hindutva, it will automatically snap its umbilical cord with the Sangh,” Vaidya wrote.

Apparently Vaidya’s tirade was directed at BJP veteran LK Advani — whose aide Sudheendra Kulkarni has questioned the RSS’s influence on Hindus — and Jaswant Singh, who recently said the BJP needed to update itself.

However, Vaidya’s criticism came as a godsend for beleaguered party chief Rajnath Singh, who made common cause with the ideologue, declaring there was no going back on Hindutva. But some party leaders told DNA they share Jaswant Singh’s views about modernisation, rather than Rajnath’s harping on the past.