Modi trying to break VHP to cling on to power: Sadhus

AHMEDABAD: Accusing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of trying to break the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), several sadhus owing allegiance to the VHP on Friday said 'Modi will not hesitate to sacrifice a Hindu outfit to cling on to power'.
    
Accusing Modi of 'building his image at the cost of Hindutva and Hindus', VHP sadhu Chaitanyadas Maharaj said, "It was the Sangh Parivar which had helped the BJP come to power in Gujarat after the 2002 communal riots."
    
He said the units of the Sangh including the RSS, VHP, BKS, ABVP had also helped the BJP in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
    
"After Modi, a Sangh member himself, came to power we felt that he will take the entire (Sangh) family along, be it solving the problems of Hindus in Gujarat, guarding ashrams and temples or banning cow-slaughter."
    
"But since the last five years of his rule, the chief minister has not done much, except promote his personal image," Chaitanyadas said in the presence of other VHP sadhus.
    
In fact, he has also been following a divide and rule policy, he alleged.
    
"He first broke the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) when its leader Lalji Patel sat on a fast unto death against his government and anti-farmer policies," he said.
   
"He is trying to bifurcate the VHP now", he alleged.
    
"Modi, who never had time to meet his own party MLAs was now personally inviting VHP workers to his home and meeting them," he said.
    
"In order to cling on to power, the chief minister will have no qualms in sacrificing a Hindu organisation," another sadhu Avichaldas Maharaj who has been associated with the VHP since the 1970s said.
    
Stating that Modi was following the footsteps of his mentor L K Advani and eyeing the prime minister's seat, he said, "Both Advani and Modi have hijacked the BJP. They have
strayed away from the main objectives of the party."
    
"We have come forward because it is a question concerning the Hindu Samaj (community) and the Hindus of Gujarat. We also want to save an organisation which we have built up with our sweat," he said.
    
"It is only because of the Parivar, the Hindus have managed to exist in our country", he said.
    
Avichaldas Maharaj said the sadhus in Gujarat will congregate under the banner of 'Hindu Dharm Jagaran Manch' in Amreli on October 22.
  
 "This gathering will be held parallel to the one planned by Modi on the same day," he added.
   
In our campaign against Modi we are yet to approach the VHP leaders, he said.
    
When asked if city-based VHP leader Jaideep Patel has been approached by Modi, the sadhu said, "Modi has been luring VHP leaders by offering them election tickets, positions in the party and other benefits."
    
"Since the past five years, all he (Modi) has done is to market and promote his image," Maharaj said adding that the roads leading to all religious places were lined with his life-size cut-outs.
    
He said that Modi government recently spent crores of rupees in filling the mythological river Saraswati with water from the Narmada. "Today if one visits Sidhpur, there is not a single drop of water there," Avichaldas said.
    
"It was nothing but a stunt organised by him," he said.
    
"Like his mentor L K Advani, Modi has also been cheating the Hindus of Gujarat," he said adding that till date cows continue to be slaughtered, temples attacked and looted and Hindu farmers continue to commit suicide.
    
The sadhus said that they were not against the BJP as a political unit, but were against Modi and Advani.
    
The sadhus also criticised senior BJP leader and in- charge for party affairs in the state Arun Jaitely for siding with Ketan Parekh, an accused in the multi-crore MMCB (Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank) scam and helping him get bail from the Supreme Court.