The Hindu : Hindutva redefined to mean `Bharatiyata': PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 12, 2003

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National

Hindutva redefined to mean `Bharatiyata': PM

By Our Special Correspondent

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, paying homage to Deen Dayal Upadhyay on his death anniversary, at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the BJP president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, are also seen. — Photo: S. Arneja

NEW DELHI FEB. 11. Continuing from where his "musings from Goa" had left off, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today once again dwelt on the Bharatiya Janata Party's ideology, saying "Hindutva has been redefined to mean Bharatiyata", but he gave no clue as to what the original meaning was and who had redefined it.

"Hindutva is not linked to any religion ... it is a `virat darshan,'" Mr. Vajpayee said as he spoke at length on the virtues of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the BJP's political fore-runner.

"Hindutva encompasses all sections of society irrespective of caste or creed, it is timeless." It was about all of humanity, and no section of society in the country was to be ignored.

He indicated that while sometimes voices from the Sangh Parivar may be different and views divergent, "our goal is the same". It left no doubt that the affiliates of the RSS may speak in different voices, they may even criticise one another, but the "goal is the same".

The occasion was a function at the BJP headquarters here on the birth anniversary of Upadhyaya. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, and several Cabinet Ministers and party office-bearers had gathered to pay homage to the man who later Mr. Advani praised for giving the party the "philosophy" of "integral humanism" and "cultural nationalism" which had enabled the BJP to become a major political force.

Mr. Advani clarified that when Upadhyaya had spoken of "akhand Bharat" he had in mind a "voluntary confederation of two sovereign states, India and Pakistan".

The occasion was devoted to claiming that the "ideology" given to the party by Upadhyaya was relevant, modern, and not sectarian. "Deen Dayal Upadhyaya took a holistic view of the world...that is why he talked of integral humanism," Mr. Vajpayee noted.

Although Mr. Vajpayee himself did not say what the final "goal" of the Hindutva ideology was — various wings of the Parivar have loudly asserted that the goal was declaration of India as a Hindu rashtra — the Prime Minister did assert the unity of the goal of the Parivar.

Mr. Naidu claimed that the BJP "had never hankered after power" but had gone to the people with its allies on a common agenda.

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