“Hindu vote is sacred?. The saints and sadhus declared it at the Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj during the Third Vishwa Hindu Sammelan on February 13 as the Triveni Mantra?a new mantra for the empowerment of the national society of Bharat to fulfill all its aspirations and protect the national interests and pristine heritage.
Since the formation of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) I have attended all the big events organised by the VHP when I was not its member. I attended them due to my personal interest. After formally joining the VHP in 1982, I met the leaders who played a key role in its formation to know their expectations from the organisation. In this series, I met Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati at his Sandipani Sadhanalaya in Powai, Mumbai. The VHP had been formed at his Ashram in 1964. In the discussion he suggested three main tasks as must-do for the VHP. He said if the VHP could do that it could become the voice of the Hindus of the world.
The first task he pointed out was that Hindus should be made aware of their identity. He said, since the saffron flag is the identity of Hindus, a particular day should be fixed in a year and all Hindus should be asked to hoist it atop their houses.
The second task he told me was to unite the intellectuals like professors, sincere bureaucrats, scientists, etc. It is necessary because the national policies, which are formulated today, are against the needs and basic traditions of Hindus. Sometimes they are formulated merely to benefit the foreign interests, which in the long run prove fatal for the national interest. These are generally done under foreign pressure and our politicians and the bureaucrats act as their agents. Therefore, the formulation of national policies in the country should be to protect our national interest based on our wisdom and traditions. Bharat has achieved partial and fractured political freedom, but Hindus feel that their Dharma and culture have not got liberation. Maharshi Aurobindo had predicted that we might achieve political freedom on August 15, 1947, but to achieve cultural and religious freedom, we would have to wage even a greater struggle.
Swami Chinmayananda'sview was that for the above purpose we needed a Hindu vote bank. The third task he suggested was to create a Hindu vote bank across the country. A Hindu should vote as a ?Hindu voter? and not merely a voter.
I met Swami Chinmayananda in 1983 and in 1984 we organised the first Dharma Sansad in which prominent saints belonging to various sects participated. At that time it was very clear in our mind that bringing the saints at one platform would prove to be a good initiative for the cultural freedom and spiritual renaissance. That is why the issues of the liberation of Ramjanmabhoomi in Ayodhya, Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura and Vishwanath temple in Kashi came up. After that Dharma Sansad, the VHP started efforts to give it a concrete shape and the movement for Shri Ramjanmabhoomi was started. Gradually it became a massive movement, which was joined by crores of people across the country. Shri Daudayal Khanna, the then prominent Congress leader, had first brought the proposal of Shri Ramjanmabhoomi liberation. At that time I met the then RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Bala Saheb Deoras in Prayag and he asked me to fully support any such movement.
I can say that since the very first day when we started this movement, the prime objective was not only rebuilding the sacred temple of national importance but to gain cultural freedom. It was then realised that it was such a powerful issue that it could shake the nation and awaken the whole Hindu society. Shri Daudayal Khanna then met Smt. Indira Gandhi and Pt. Kamalapati Tripathi in this regard. Shri Tripathi had then told him that he was trying to ignite barood (gunpowder) and Congress policy of Hindu-Muslim unity will lose its significance. Since that day Shri Tripathi started efforts to defuse the movement. But he could not stop it. The anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim face of the Congress was exposed when nobody from the Congress came forward to speak in favour of the Ram temple. When Shri Ram Nagina Mishra spoke in its favour he was humiliated by the Congress leaders and was later removed from the party. But he remained committed to his stand. Just as the freedom movement touched the hearts of the entire countrymen, the Ramjanmabhoomi movement had even a greater impact and it shook the politics of the whole country.
Hindu vote bank was a natural byproduct of Shri Ramjanmabhoomi movement. The whole country practically saw it and realised its importance during this movement. Those who are questioning the feasibility of Hindu vote bank are on wrong side.
The Hindus are waiting for a leader who can mould the politics of the country based on the Hindu agenda and save the nation and the national society, i.e., the Hindu society from atrocities and injustice. The Sanskrit language is being victimised. Our priceless legacy is being destroyed and English is being imposed. The holy cow?that is also complete ecology and is backbone of our economy?is being slaughtered. We are a people of river civilisation. All our pilgrimage places are on the banks of the Ganga and other holy rivers and the flow of the Ganga and other rivers have been blocked making them polluted and almost converted into dead rivers. It pains the Hindu society and they feel that their culture based on integral human values is under a great threat.
Our saints and sadhus feel that the Hindu vote bank which had taken shape during the Ramjnmabhoomi Movement was misused by the political leaders for their narrow self interests and they betrayed the aspirations of Hindus.
I firmly believe that the politics of the country should be in the strong hands that can protect the Hindu inheritance and honour the aspirations of the core national society.
(The author is president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad.)
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