Hardliners on the ascendant in Muslim Board, Parivar

NEW DELHI: With the Sangh Parivar and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) toughening their postures, it is clear that hardliners are on the ascendant within both the warring groups.
What is even clearer is that from now on, it is the hardliners, and not the moderates, who will set the political agenda on behalf of their organisations.
The AIMPLB''s rejection of the RSS appeal did come on the expected lines.It had to happen. But why did the RSS took a U-turn in Kanyakumari in the first place and ask Muslims to step aside to allow construction of a temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and hand over the mosques at Mathura and Kashi?
There are three answers to this question. First, the RSS, which happens to be the parent body of the BJP, did not want the accusation that it had conveniently forgotten Ram for the sake of power. Second, the Sangh Parivar realised that the BJP was losing ground almost everywhere in general and the Ganga belt in particular. Finally came the realisation that something needed to be done fast to stem the rot before it was too late.
Whipping up the Ram temple movement has been a tried and tested formula for success for them. And that is precisely why it took such a strong confrontationist line suddenly. Now that the writing on the wall is all too clear, nobody should be surprised if the hardliners within the Sangh Parivar mount pressure on both the Union and the UP governments to fall in line or else face the music. Already, the VHP leaders led by Ashok Singhal have trained their guns on the Prime Minister. Now chances are that more and more hardliners would echo Singhal''s sentiments against Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the NDA.
In Lucknow, state BJP chief Vinay Katiyar has been attacking chief minister Mayawati almost regularly. Katiyar, who is better known for his Bajrang Dal connection, is one of the many BJP leaders who believe that their party had, in fact, committed political hara-kiri by aligning with the BSP. Now, Katiyar and his friends are even more furious with the Mayawati establishment because of removal of chapters on Ram, Krishna, Buddha, Savarkar and Shivaji from school textbooks. Ironically enough, fresh chapters on Bhimrao Ambedkar and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule have been included in the textbooks.
The fallout within the BJP camp apart, the confrontationist postures of the RSS and the AIMPLB are likely to shake up opposition politics also. Already, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have moved closer and chances are that more like-minded parties would join hands to beat the BJP and its allies at the hustings. Some leaders from Mulayam Singh Yadav''s Samajwadi Party and Laloo Yadav''s Rashtriya Janata Dal are in touch with their friends in the non-BJP constituents of the NDA.