BJP reclaims Hindutva mantle as Sadhus warm to Modi

BJP reclaims Hindutva mantle as Sadhus warm to Modi

By Aditya Menon and Bhuvan Bagga

Published: 23:07 BST, 3 February 2013 | Updated: 23:07 BST, 3 February 2013

With lakhs of sadhus, saints and worshippers descending on Prayag and transforming it into a sea of saffron, there couldn’t have been a better setting for one of the most significant realignments in Hindutva politics in the country.

At the centre of this reconfiguration is Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has set aside its antipathy for Modi and demanded, in no uncertain terms, that he be declared the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.

“If people themselves are demanding that Modi be made the PM candidate, then the BJP will also have to think about it. After all, the BJP president himself has said that Modi is their most popular leader at present,” VHP international president Ashok Singhal said on Sunday.

Family reunion at Kumbh

The VHP, along with some prominent sadhus and groups close to the Sangh Parivar, is likely to formally pass a resolution in Modi’s support at a conclave in Allahabad later this week, which the Gujarat CM will reportedly attend on Thursday.

“We are committed to our ideology and we will provide ideological inputs (to the BJP),” the VHP’s international working president Pravin Togadia told Mail Today.

He said the VHP had been steadfast in its demand for the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, but added that it wasn’t the only issue the outfit holds dear.

“There are a number of threats that the country is facing, such as terrorism and illegal immigration,” he said.

The VHP-Modi reunion comes after years of bad blood between the two.

Two years ago, Togadia had declared that the outfit would sever relations with the BJP as the party had “deviated from the path of Hindutva”. 

The Modi government, on the orders of the Supreme Court, reopened a number of cases related to the 2002 riots which led to the arrest of many foot-soldiers of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal.

However, despite the VHP’s fallout with Modi, the lines of communication between the VHP and the BJP at the national level never broke down.

It was last week’s meeting between top representatives of the VHP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and the BJP that signalled a decisive reunification of the Sangh Parivar.

The catalyst that compelled the Parivar to close ranks was Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s comment accusing the BJP, the RSS and the VHP of fostering terror.

Another crucial factor that drove the VHP to mend fences with Modi was the “pressure from below”, that is, the support for Modi among its own rank and file.

“Yes, it is true that some leaders didn’t get along with him in the past, but now they can’t not like him; because even our cadres and like-minded people on the ground adore him,” said a VHP leader preparing for its mega Sant Sammelan and Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal on February 6 and 7.

“While he is the ideal candidate for us Hindus, he should make some commitments to our core causes before we support him,” a senior sadhu scheduled to attend the conclave said.

The Kumbh might be associated with the separation of families in Bollywood lore, but for the Sangh parivar it has provided a platform for a family reunion.

Working on Modi consensus

The BJP will evolve a consensus over Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate.

“He is a popular leader. The party will work on the consensus candidate,” BJP president Rajnath Singh said in Bhopal on Sunday.

The prime ministerial candidate, he said, will be decided by the parliamentary board.

Tiwari stirs war of words on PM

JD-U spokesperson Shivanand Tiwari on Saturday said “sadhus and saints could not determine the NDA’s PM candidate”, referring to the VHP’s endorsement of Modi.

“Political parties are to decide the candidate,” he said.

The BJP’s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi termed the statement ridiculous.

“Will Hafiz Saeed decide the Prime Minister of India?” he retorted.

‘Here to serve my guru’

By Bhuvan Bagga in Allahabad

Ambika, who used to be Adrienne six years ago, is one of the many faces at the Mahakumbh that reflect the soft power of Hinduism.

A US citizen from Colorado, she was a chef before she became an “ascetic – and happy”.

Though a foreigner, she is no stranger to India or Indians, whose devotion to religion fascinates her.

This is her third Kumbh after the Kumbh in 2001 and Ardh Kumbh in 2007.

She immediately protested when this writer addressed her as Adrienne.

“I am Ambika now and have found contentment and joy in my brahmacharya,” she said.

Ambika came in touch with a female Indian guru and hasn’t looked back since.

“I have everything that I need. I am now here to serve my guru,” she said.

She thanks her family for being supportive of her decision.

“They understood that this is what gave me happiness. Now, I am down on this road to discover myself,” she said.

While she may have moved on with her new life, her first love for cooking continues. Some within the extended area of her guru’s campus at the Mahakumbh said she has mastered the art of Indian cooking.

When asked her about her cooking skills, she maintained that the only thing that mattered to her was to serve her guru. Besides Indian cooking, she has also learnt the Hindu mantras and bhajans.

An engineer’s quest for peace

By Bhuvan Bagga in Allahabad

If Sean Penn’s 2007 film Into the Wild, based on the life of American Christopher McCandless, a whizkid who gives up the “conventional” life for that of a nomad, is remade in India, it would find its ideal subject in 28-year-old K.

Surendra.

Till a few years back, this youngster from Tamil Nadu was living the life modern-day fairytales are made of – a mechanical engineer, he was earning big bucks as an employee at a top MNC.

But a sense of discontent persisted.
And it was this restlessness, and the pursuit for “inner peace”, that drove Surendra to quit his plush life to become the wandering ascetic he is today.

He couldn’t immediately tell his family – an engineer father and a homemaker mother – that he wanted to give up the “good life”.

“So I told them that I wanted to go to Chennai from our hometown in Coimbatore to learn media and animation. Even that was difficult at the start,” he says.

But soon enough, he was in Chennai, and got interested in making documentaries.

“I did one documentary – The Pilgrimage- for a Chennai-based International production company.”

The last two years, over which he has managed to “totally detach” himself from the conventional rigmarole of life, Surendra has travelled to every major Indian centre of spirituality – from Haridwar, Brahmacharyasana Rishikesh, Khajuraho and Orcha to Goa and Chennai, among other places.

In fact, it was on one such “self-discovery” trip that he met the love of his life, Italian Manuela Alonso.

“It was love at first sight when we met on a bus from Goa to Chennai; we knew that it was the start of something special,” Surendra says, smiling at Manuela, a jewellery designer and juggling enthusiast.

Kumbh, the biggest religious gathering of its kind in the world, is only the second most ‘powerful’ experience for Surendra, trailing behind his experience camping atop a Tiruvannamalai hill in Tamil Nadu in his younger days.

“Like the Kumbh, it is also dedicated to Lord Shiva, and on full moon nights, lakhs of people take a round (parikrama) of the mountain. I did that and then stayed back for the night at a cave atop the mountain. It was beautiful. It was powerful. And it was peaceful,” he recalls.

He credits the journey as his wake-up call to break away from convention. So what does the future hold for him?

“I hope I can hitch a ride from here to Goa’s wilderness,” he quips.

But then, as a young man with a recently acquired spiritual insight, he adds: “It will take me a lifetime to find the answer you want, the answer everyone wants. We need to be patient and the happiness will come.”