EVEN as prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee prepared for his much-awaited bus journey to Lahore last week, his mentor-the rss-had a very specific piece of advice to offer: soft-talking and merely going to Pakistan will not serve any purpose. Rather, try and address the real issues. This counsel came from the Bharatiya Yuva Kranti Dal (bykd), an organisation backed by the Sangh parivar.
The bykd has been deployed to drive the point home because the rss-concerned about its ever-growing anti-Vajpayee image and sensing an overwhelming public opinion in favour of better relationships with Pakistan-does not want to play spoilsport. Instead, the bykd has been deputed to do the dirty job of reminding the prime minister that, after all, Pakistan is a hostile country.
The organisation has no direct links with the rss per se, but since some of the vhp people are behind its formation, it naturally comes within the purview of the Sangh parivar. Interestingly, Anil Mahipal Singh, the young bykd president, happily relates that he was once arrested for holding a black flag demonstration against Vajpayee.
In a memorandum to the prime minister, the bykd has urged him not to forget that Pakistan was created on the basis of 'hatred and communalism'. It has also reminded him that thousands of innocent people were massacred in the aftermath of the country's 'artificial partition'. On the one hand, Pakistan's isi has been conspiring to spread terrorism, separatism and riots in India and on the other it illegally occupies 63 Indian districts. 'In the light of these facts, if you are still willing to extend a hand of friendship with Pakistan, then please don't forget the sanskrit saying shathe shathyam samacharet (tit for tat),' notes the memorandum. The bykd has also urged that instead of Nawaz Sharif, Vajpayee on his return should bring 'Indian soldiers languishing in Pakistani jails' since the 1971 war. States the memorandum: 'We are sure that you will commence your journey only after assuring us their safe return.'
Though the rss would like to project the bykd as an independent organisation, there is a complete unity of thought between the two. Says Kaushal Kishor, a top rss functionary: 'There's nothing wrong with these demands. Just going to Pakistan and coming back is not going to serve any purpose, unless contentious issues are sorted out.' Clearly, the bykd is made to voice the feelings of the Sangh which does not want to come out openly and resort to rhetoric, especially on the issue of Indo-Pak relationships.
The Sangh parivar's willingness to avoid controversy on this issue was evident at the eighth dharma sansad in Ahmedabad, where the fire-spewing Acharya Dharmendra openly ridiculed Vajpayee from the dais. Giving a clarion call to launch an offensive against Pakistan, the articulate acharya said: 'Go to Pakistan if you must, but not on a bus. Go there on tanks and take the Pokhran bombs along.' Realising that his organisation would be accused of creating war hysteria, vhp supremo Ashok Singhal wasted no time in dissociating himself from the acharya. 'It was his personal thinking which has nothing to do with the vhp,' he later said. rss ideologue Devendra Swaroop also washed his hands of the Acharya. He told Outlook: 'I spoke to Ashokji (Singhal) today and he also said that Acharya Dharmendra unnecessarily said all those things. That was just the rhetoric and not the representative voice of the vhp.' As the chorus splits into independent voices set in a gradation of ever-shriller pitch, the rss, like always, has the luxury of letting things be said and not take responsibility for it.
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