Ram Setu brings out BJP-VHP gulf

Differences between the BJP and the VHP seem to have come out in the open with the catalyst being the Ram Setu issue. Senior office-bearers of the VHP met today for a two-day meet to chart out an agitation against the Ram Setu canal project.

After the first meeting, senior VHP leader Praveen Togadia made it very clear that differences between the VHP and the BJP were as bitter as ever.

"The Ram Setu agitation is our agitation, and we will not allow anybody to play politics over the issue," he said. Togadia and his fellow VHP members have been annoyed with the BJP especially in Gujarat as they feel that the Narendra Modi government has not been giving the VHP enough importance.

The VHP is also sore over the fact that the nominees of the VHP have not been adjusted in the BJP state unit, with Modi dominating all appointments. While at a Sangh Parivar meeting in Mumbai earlier this month, the RSS counselled the VHP and other Sangh outfits upset with Modi to remain "neutral" in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state, it is no secret that there is no love lost between the BJP and the VHP.

Togadia has apparently told his colleagues that the Ram Setu issue has suddenly caught the imagination of politicians after the government's affidavit questioning the historicity of Ram. "But we must emphasise that even before the affidavit, this was an issue for us and we have been agitating on the streets against it," he told his colleagues.