Hindutva being projected contrary to its true spirit: PM

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has sharply criticised the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for projecting "a narrow and extremist" version of Hindutva. In his ''Musings from Goa,'' released to the media on Tuesday, the Prime Minister did not name the outfit, referring instead to "some people" who were putting across the "unfortunate and unacceptable interpretation that runs contrary to its (Hindutva''s) true spirit."
For the second year running, the Prime Minister''s ''musings'' have sought to reassure public opinion alarmed by Sangh Parivar rhetoric.His 2000 Kumarakom Musings sought to set to rest the "Ayodhya-as-national-sentiment" remark and attack the VHP''s narrowly focused movement to build a temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. His Goa thoughts reflect a desire to calm fears raised by statements of various VHP''s leaders in the wake of the Gujarat election verdict.
But they also mark a new intensity in the battle of hearts and minds within the Sangh Parivar itself. In the latest issue of the RSS mouthpiece, , the outfit''s chief, K S Sudarshan, has said that the Gujarat polls had set the stage for a new Mahabharata war between "the votaries of Hindutva and its opponents." VHP leader Pravin Togadia has been shriller in his criticism of the opponents of Hindutva. A more elliptical manifestation of the struggle has been the surprise attack of VHP chief Ashok Singhal on L K Advani for allegedly hurting the Ram Janambhoomi cause by his 1991 rath yatra.
Vajpayee maintains that Hindutva is no different from (Indianness) and pitting ''secularism'' against ''Hindutva'' is "incorrect and untenable." His version of secularism is an orthodox one: India as a state that shows respect to all faiths and does not discriminate between them. Vajpayee has insisted that in his understanding, ''Hindutva'' was a forward looking concept, "not one that seeks to take us back... that is reform minded and not one that protects obscurantism and injustice." The authorities cited in the ''musings'' are significant - Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo - not Savarkar, who first coined the term Hindutva and gave it an anti-minority twist, or RSS icon Golwalkar.
The second major theme of the Goa musings is Pakistan and Kashmir. After chastising Islamabad for backing terrorism by religious extremists in India, the Prime Minister has called on Pakistan to "abandon its insistence" on the centrality of the Kashmir issue and to open up trade and cultural ties and promote people-to-people contacts. The offer comes a day after additional restrictions have been placed on Pakistani visitors, indicating either the PM has not been informed of the decision or that its best to assume some gap between the rhetoric of the musings and the reality of government policy.
Nearly half of the musings comprise of issues related to development. Referring to the great strides in roads and telecom connectivity in recent years, Vajpayee has said that "river connectivity" will be the third tier of this effort.
The Prime Minister has also appealed for a government-public partnership to tackle various problems. He has called for a change of mindset to eliminate the unhygienic conditions of India''s cities and villages as well as efforts to fight social evils such as violence against women and dalits.