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Rasheeda Bhagat

AHMEDABAD, Dec. 8

AS the electoral battle for the Gujarat Assembly enters its last leg, the campaigning of Sangh Parivar outfits like the VHP, widely referred to in the Gujarat media as the BJP's B team, has struck a new shrill pitch.

In his recent election rallies, Mr Praveen Togadia is urging the Gujarat Hindus to more than avenge the Godhra carnage and defeat supporters of the "jehadi Muslims" of Gujarat. Hitherto he has been urging them to provide the people of India a model in Gujarat which can be easily replicated. The implication is sure enough, but the words are not spelt out.

But now he has launched a new offensive against Mahatma Gandhi in his own land. The Sangh Parivar's scoffing at Gandhiji's ideology of non-violence is well known. But now Mr Togadia wants the Gujarati Hindu to give a new lead to the rest of the country when it comes to India's Mahatma.

At one recent rally, the speech of which was reported by the Gujarati newspaper Sandesh, the VHP General Secretary urged Gujaratis "to pull down the pictures of Gandhiji" which they have been hitherto displaying in their homes and offices.

Thanks to Gandhiji's weakness and surrender, Pakistan was formed. "So let us discard his pictures. I want the people of Gujarat to give a lead to the rest of the country in this matter. We have come out marching with the saffron flag. And I assure you that after hoisting the saffron flag in Gujarat and then Delhi, we will march with this saffron flag to Lahore and then Rawalpindi. If I don't hoist this saffron flag in Lahore and Rawalpindi, my name is not Praveen Togadia." The newspaper reports that the VHP President, Mr Ashok Singhal, who was present at the meeting, did make a weak defence of Gandhiji.

To gauge the effect of such rhetoric on young and impressionable minds, Business Line posed a question to Mahesh Arjun Vaghela, who is training to be a teacher at the N.H.Patel College in Anand.

"Gandhiji karney gaye sab achcha lekin ho gaya sab ulta. Woh chaley they manavta ki dristhi sey, lekin woh unki badi bhool thi. (Gandhiji started off trying to do everything that was good. But it turned out to be opposite. His ideology of humanism turned out to be his greatest mistake.)" So how would he respond to Mr Togadia's call to throw out Gandhiji's pictures from offices and homes? "Gandhiji mey bhi kafi kamiya thi... kahi kahi vey bilkul jhootey the (Gandhiji had lots of shortcomings and in many a place he was a liar). Many things he said and did were not for the good for this nation, but he said them to make himself great in the eyes of the world."

In the end what happened to his own family? Unka beta khud veshya ke ghar par mara aur dharm parivartan karney ke liye bhi tayyar ho gaya tha.. Musalman ban ney ke liye. Woh apne betey ko handle nahi kar sakey, phir sarey desh ko ya sari duniya ko kya handle kar saketey? (His own son died on the doorstep of a prostitute. And he was also ready to convert his religion and become a Muslim. He couldn't even handle his own son, and he was out to reform the whole country and the whole world.)

But Mahesh falls short of a complete break with Gandhiji's ideology of non-violence. When asked if Gujarat and India should set aside Gandhiji's philosophy of non-violence and do what the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani has said: wage a fourth and perhaps final war with Pakistan to deal with terrorism, he said, "Unfortunately Pakistan is not alone. It has on its side countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries. Today even the US is on its side. So we should be careful. But instead of straightaway declaring war on Pakistan, we should give it a firm and last warning. And when I say aakhri chetavni (last warning), I mean it."

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