The Hindu : Implementing Hindutva, the Katiyar way

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 31, 2002

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Implementing Hindutva, the Katiyar way

By J.P. Shukla

LUCKNOW DEC. 30. The Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party president, Vinay Katiyar, seems to have hit upon an innovative way to implement the `Hindutva' agenda and control the political damage caused to his party by the Dalit agenda of the Chief Minister, Mayawati.

Instead of using any offensive language against the Chief Minister or his party, Mr. Katiyar has chosen to selectively highlight the utterances of B.R. Ambedkar to question the patriotism of the Muslims. And he has simultaneously launched a new campaign in the name of strengthening the concept of `cultural nationalism', making an overt communal appeal to the majority community.

Embarking upon a `yatra' after performing worship at the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi on Sunday, Mr. Katiyar called upon Muslims to hand over three temples — Ramjanmabhoomi at Ayodhya , the Krishna Janmabhoomi at Mathura, and Kashi Vishwanath at Varanasi — to the Hindus.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has been making the same demands for several decades to orchestrate its ideological concept of `Hindu rashtra'. Mr. Katiyar has now hinted at plans to give a fillip to the VHP agenda, apparently to garner greater cooperation of the Sangh Parivar outfits during the future elections.

Mr. Katiyar declared that his theory of `cultural nationalism' had the support of Dr. Ambedkar, who had strongly opposed partition of India. He quoted Dr. Ambedkar as having pleaded for complete shifting of populations from the two sides in the wake of partition and used the word `terrorist' for Muslims in one of his books.

Dr. Ambedkar had stated that no non-Muslim rule could fulfil the aspirations of the Muslims, Mr. Katiyar said. While the remarks of the State BJP president could be interpreted as an effort to accommodate the Dalits of the Bahujan Samaj Party in the wider constituency of Hindutva, his interpretations would certainly be embarrassing to Ms. Mayawati, who claims to be the protector of the interests of the minorities. However, the BSP leadership could find it difficult to counter the minority-bashing by the BJP on the authority of Dr. Ambedkar, intensely revered by Dalit outfits.

Mr. Katiyar said that during his `yatra', he would profusely quote Dr. Ambedkar to make known his views about Muslims. In fact, it was basically because of the ideas of Dr. Ambedkar that his party had decided to support the Bahujan Samaj Party-led Mayawati Government in U.P., he said.

The first leg of Mr. Katiyar's `yatra' will end on January 12. He will cover nearly 30 districts during this period proclaiming Dr. Ambedkar as an important votary of `cultural nationalism'. His campaign would naturally force the BSP leadership to find new ways to protect its pro-minority bias without contradicting one of the great symbols of Dalit identity.

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Implementing Hindutva, the Katiyar way