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VHP calls Advani a pseudo-secularist

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 19 . The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, was today described by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders as a ``pseudo-secularist'' who preferred ``to appease'' the minorities by talking about the need for ensuring their safety, while ignoring the safety of the majority community.

L.K. Advani

Mr. Advani's reply to the adjournment motion related to the Gujarat developments has certainly not been liked by the VHP and its youth wing, the Bajrang Dal. What irked them was his categorical statement that India could never become a Hindu Rashtra or a theocratic State founded on the Hindu religion.

``He has changed his tune, you should ask him why he has done this,'' the VHP leader, Ashok Singhal, stated today at a press conference.

``Now Advaniji seems to be following the same path as the leaders of other parties before him. Where is the party with a difference?''

Ashok Singhal

With this, the differences within the Sangh Parivar have taken a new turn. Every now and then, the Parivar outfits had been targeting the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, but they have almost always spared Mr. Advani, hero of the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation who traversed the length and breadth of the country during the `rath-yatra' to spread the Hindutva ideology.

It is the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, who is the new hero of the Sangh Parivar.

``The political message that went out from Mr. Advani's speech in Parliament was not good (`message achcha nahin gaya'),'' Mr. Singhal said, while another leader of the VHP, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, concurred, disapproving of Mr. Advani's rejection of the Hindu Rashtra concept.

Mr. Singhal's charge was that Mr. Advani was ``playing with words'' and the ``society at large will not like what he said.'' After all, his argument was, ``there are 85 per cent Hindus in the country''.

Separately, the Bajrang Dal convenor, Prakash Sharma, was reported by the agencies as having stated in Kanpur that Mr. Advani's remarks in Parliament amounted to an ``insult to Hindus''. He said: ``India was a Hindu state, it is a Hindu state and it will remain a Hindu state.''

The VHP leaders also made it clear that the organisation would carry on its propaganda in Gujarat through more than a hundred public meetings. Although it will be campaigning for the BJP, it will refrain from asking voters to cast their ballots in favour of the BJP for tactical purposes.

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