Gau Bhakti will lead to good governance, Ashok Singhal

Ashok Singhal, senior leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is a rational reactionary. He believes in his unpalatable-to-the-liberals ideas with cool certainty. He does not fret, he does not rage. The reason could be that he pursued metallurgical engineering at Benaras Hindu University and understands the resistance and stress of metals and how to deal with it. Sitting in a private, spartan room — bed, chair and table, the only appurtenances are the icons of the many gods and goddesses at one corner of the room.

They include Rama, Krishna, small pictures of RSS mentors — Hegdewar and Golwalkar, icons of Puttaparthi Saibaba and Vivekananda and photographs of other godmen on the walls — at the very end of the Sankatmochan Hanuman temple situated at the end of a winding alley behind the Sector VI market of RK Puram, the sprawling government employees’ residential colony in south Delhi . 
He talks in a measured tone. When a visitor adulates him as the “great Ashok” who would unite Hindu India, much like the other Ashok who united India from Kandahar to Mysore, he shows not a flicker of being flattered.

He is doing a stretching and breathing exercise sitting in his chair when I enter the room. “I have a bronchial problem,” he says.

“Do you take homeopathic medicine?” I ask. He says he uses allopathic medicines and an inhaler meant for chronic asthmatics. Tea and north Indian munchies are served.

Were you in the government like your younger brother (late AP Singhal an IPS officer) before you came into the VHP?
After doing metallurgical engineering at (Benaras) Hindu University, I became a RSS pracharak and worked in Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Prayag (Allahabad) and Bundelkhand area. In 1981 after the mass conversion of Scheduled Caste people to Islam in Meeankshipuram in Tamil Nadu, I became part of the VHP. We went there and talked to the leaders of the SC community in the villages. Their main complaint was that they were not allowed into the temples. We built 200 temples for the scheduled castes. The conversions stopped.

What were the talks you had with Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav?
We had met him and told him about the 84 Kosi (old measure of distance) parikrama (circumambulation) programme. That it involves only 270 “sants” (mendicants) and that since the number of people participating wouldn’t be large,  it  would require about 15 to 18 policemen to oversee the programme.
The day after our meeting, Azam Khan gave an angry statement protesting against Mulayam  meeting us. Then the SP did an about-turn. They deployed 35 to 40 companies of security forces. Azam Khan is the virtual chief minister and home minister of Uttar Pradesh.

What is the aim of the programme?
The 84 Kosi area covers about five to six districts and spreads over 350km. We want to make Ayodhya a “mokshapuri” (sacred space of salvation) and we are saying that we will not allow a replica of Babri Masjid to be built anywhere in this area. In Mecca, the sacred place of Islam, non-Muslims are not allowed. We want similar status for Ayodhya.

President Shankar Dayal Sharma sent a reference about the Babri Masjid dispute to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court wanted to know what is it that the president sought through the reference. An affidavit was filed saying if the masjid was built on virgin ground, then the site will go to the Muslims. If it  was built after destroying a temple, then the site will go to the Hindus. Excavations proved that there was a temple there and some of the building material of the temple was used in the building of the masjid.

It is not true that this is not the right time for the ‘parikrama’ because in Ayodhya there has been a tradition of “chaatur maasya” (the four months of rain when mendicants stayed put at one place) and the 'parikrama' is done all the time.

What about the many other mosques in Ayodhya?
Yes. There are about a dozen mosques in Ayodhya. Seven of them are not functioning. They will remain. What we do not want is a replica of Babri Masjid to be built in this area.

Do you think that in 2014 if a BJP-led government comes to power,  it will be easier for you to push the temple agenda
This movement has nothing to do with political parties. It is like the freedom movement which was above political parties. Arvind Ghose (Sri Aurobindo) said on August 15, 1947, 'On this day we have got our political freedom. We have now to fight and achieve religious and cultural freedom.'

We met President Pranab Mukherjee on June 30 and gave him a petition asking for a legislation to be passed in parliament on the basis of our demands. We have met about 470 members of parliament separately, and
explained our position.

How are your relations with the BJP leaders? Do you meet them often?
My relations with the BJP leaders are good. I meet them about three to four times a year.

You were not too happy with the BJP leadership during 1998-2004 when
they were in power.
It does not matter whether I was happy or not. All those things are in the past.

The BJP is in a dilemma whether to emphasise development or Hindutva in the 2014 elections.
What is Hindutva? It is good governance. Ban cow slaughter because cow milk is better for development of the country that cow meat. Keeping the Ganga river clean is good for development. Gau Bhakti (devotion to cow), Ganga Bhakti (devotion to Ganga) will lead to good governance.

What do you think of the BJP’s prospects?
Things are changing. They have brought Modi to the forefront. I believe in destiny. God guides the temple movement. It is not dependent on political parties. The battle has been going on since the Babri Masjid was built in 1528.
There have been 76 battles over the last four hundred years and three lakh people have died.

Do you believe in an inter-faith dialogue in a broader context?
There is no need for a dialogue. People are coming to us (Hinduism) without a dialogue. Patanjali Yoga is becoming popular all over the world. We did not go out. People are coming. We do not need conversions.