By Sanjay Pandey
BJP would be making ‘Rashtravad, hindutva and conversion’ its major planks, besides the Ram Temple and cow protection, in the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, which are scheduled to be held early next year.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which held a day-long ”strategy session” with senior BJP leaders, including chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday, has ‘suggested’ to the saffron party that it should continue to follow the ‘hindutva’ ideology but has cautioned it on the newly formulated population policy.
According to the sources, the Sangh also asked the BJP leaders and workers to reach out to the masses and popularise the achievements of the state government on different fronts.
Sources said that it has been decided at the meeting that ‘Rashtravad’ should be among the major planks in the forthcoming assembly, besides ‘Love Jihad’ (Musim youths marrying Hindu girls on false pretences) and ‘conversion’.
Sources also said that the Sangh has cautioned the BJP on the new population policy and suggested some amendments in the same. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had also earlier asked the UP government to scrap the new policy or introduce a new one with amendments saying that it was against the Hindus.
The saffron party would, in an apparent bid to sharpen its ‘hindutva’ plank, be felicitating seers, saints and priests on the occasion of ‘Guru Purnima’ on July 24. ”The party will be organising functions at every booth to felicitate them,” said the BJP leader.
Earlier at the two-day long state BJP executive committee meeting held a couple of days ago, Adityanath had said that the “jihadi elements” had targeted ”deaf and dumb” children to convert them as part of a “conspiracy” and added that they ”posed a serous threat to the national security”.
This story first appeared on deccanherald.com