BJP's road map to address Hindutva constituency

Caught between its ideology and the compulsions of realpolitik, the Bharatiya Janata Party's move to draw a road map for its future in its "Vision 2004" document is being seen as an attempt to address the hard-core Hindutva constituency without antagonising the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners.

Of late, the BJP leadership has been fielding queries from the leaders of the Sangh Parivar to clear its stance on the issues which form the core of the Sangh Parivar's ideology.

Obviously, the core issues "" Article 370, the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya and a Uniform Civil Code"" do not find place in the NDA's agenda which was regarded as a joint manifesto of the coalition.

Vision 2004, which is being prepared by Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley and a group party functionaries, has apparently not enthused the RSS and its affiliated organisations.

Sources in the BJP maintain that the document is being prepared only to reiterate party's ideological commitments in much diluted form.

"The document will be finalised shortly," Jaitley said, adding that the draft document would be distributed among BJP leaders to elicit their response.

"They will address the Hindu constituency by emphasising their commitment to build the Ram temple through consensus," said RSS sources. "These issues will be mentioned only for political purposes," they feel.

In fact, Bharatiya Janata Party President M Venkaiah Naidu hit upon the idea of coming out with a vision document when RSS chief KS Sudershan is learnt to have asked the BJP leadership to contest the elections on the party's manifesto.

Given the diverse nature of the coalition, the BJP leadership expressed its inability to come out with a separate manifestation but promised to keep the "core issues" intact in the vision document.

The Sangh Parivar was quite rattled by the BJP leadership's attempt to maintain distance from the core-issues in the recent past.

This stance was clearly illustrated at a meeting of the leaders of various constituents of the Sangh Parivar and BJP leaders, including deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, in Chennai.

Sources admit that the BJP leadership's deviation from the ideological issues was certainly frowned upon by the RSS leadership which is not eager to go whole hog with the BJP's campaign.

"We have hardly gained anything by closely associating with the BJP," RSS leaders said, adding that the BJP had gained maximum benefits in all the places where the RSS is firmly entrenched like in Chhattisgarh and tribal regions of Madhya Pradesh.

That the RSS will be articulating its view on politics and elections in Jaipur on March 15 at its executive meeting is already a matter of speculation in the Sangh Parivar.

BJP sources admit that the Vision 2004, which has drawn inputs from various quarters, including finance ministry, agriculture ministry and surface transport ministry, will be a cleverly drafted document to reiterate party's commitment to the core-issues of Hindutva and lay equal emphasis on the "India Shining" campaign.

"But for the RSS, the document will not be worth cleaning the room" a senior leader of the Parivar said.