Saffron camp hopes to make sadhvi poll icon

NEW DELHI: After initial hesitation, the saffron camp is gearing up to revive its Hindutva plank with arrested Sadhvi Pragya Thakur as its spearhead.

The first indications of a comprehensive strategy for the upcoming state and parliamentary elections came on Wednesday with Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) general secretary Vyankatesh Abdeo pledging support to her from Nagpur and announcing countrywide agitations against what he called the Congress party’s “vicious
crusade” against Hindu saints.

BJP president Rajnath Singh gave the political stamp of approval to the planned campaign. “The government is targeting Hindu religious leaders and ashrams without sufficient evidence,” he declared in in Raipur. “We find these actions suspicious.”
A BJP strategist admitted that the two statements mark the start of a carefully calibrated attempt to mount the Hindutva tiger again.  

 “The Congress government has gone in for overkill in its investigations into the Malegaon blasts. By targeting Hindu religious leaders, it has given the BJP an excellent election plank. Of course, we will exploit it,” he told DNA.

There are shades of the Ram mandir campaign of the late 1980s and early 1990s in the emerging contours of the strategy. The VHP will provide the foot soldiers for an aggressive offensive. The BJP will provide political cover but move carefully so that it doesn’t attract the charge of communalising the upcoming polls.

The Congress may have unwittingly given the BJP a handle to up the ante. Saffron circles noted with glee comments from Congress leader Veerappa Moily and spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed who accused the BJP on Wednesday of having “a soft corner” for terror. “Rajnath Singh wants to protect some of those who are linked to acts [of terror],” Ahmed told the press. Moily accused the sangh parivar of trying to brainwash army officials.

Salvos of this sort will only serve to unite the parivar, a BJP strategist said. He felt that the faction-ridden saffron camp will be pushed to close ranks if the Congress continues to fire such charges.

What seems to have given the BJP and its affiliates in the larger parivar hope in the face of daily revelations about the terror links of some fringe groups is their perception that the ATS may not have conclusive evidence against Pragya Thakur. It comes in the wake of reports that she was subjected to four narco-analysis tests that, from all accounts, drew a blank.

A BJP source said that whether or not she is released, the party believes that Pragya Thakur is already an iconic figure for some Hindus who are upset at the manner in which religious leaders are being dragged into the terror net. If she is released, she could be utilised to consolidate the saffron parivar for the BJP. “Our voters will realise that whatever its faults, the BJP is better than the Congress,” said a sangh sympathiser.

A Congress leader admitted that the party will have to step carefully through the terror minefield lest the issue explodes in their face. Till now, the party’s strategy was to let the ATS investigations speak for themselves. However, Wednesday’s hard-hitting comments from Congress spokespersons suggest that there has been a rethink in the light of reports that the BJP intends to communalise the revelations.