RSS ideologue M G Vaidya on Monday said that Varun Gandhi?s alleged hate speech in Pilibhit, that many in the BJP argue turned Muslims against the party across the country, ?was against the basic tenets of Hindutva?. ?Chopping off hands or any such thing is not acceptable to us. This is not Hindutva,? Vaidya told The Indian Express on Monday, making him the first RSS leader to come out in the open against the young BJP leader.
RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi had earlier defended Varun?s reported remarks. ?What Varun said is due to circumstances that have developed in the country today. The issue he raised should be taken seriously. The language he used may be improper, but his feelings are genuine. It has to be seen in the context of the situation prevailing there,? Joshi had told Organiser in the first week of April. The RSS journal also wrote editorials defending the young Gandhi.
?If he ever came to me, I would first ask him if he actually said so. The ideology of Hindutva is often misrepresented and misunderstood and there?s no place of such (anti-Muslim) sentiments therein,? said Vaidya. He, however, added that ?Varun has also said that the statements attributed to him were never actually made in the first place?.
?Hindutva is about plurality of thought, and plurality of faith,? he said. In a column in the recent edition of Marathi daily Tarun Bharat, he has taken digs at the BJP, arguing that the ?BJP should give up Hindutva to attract its erstwhile allies?. Asked how he would reconcile the two views, he said: ?The very idea of Hindutva is often misunderstood and misrepresented. It treats other faiths as equally valid.?
The RSS ideologue also said that the likes of ?Ram Sene (that earned notoriety after it attacked pubs in Mangalore) and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur (said to have had a hand in the Malegaon blasts) didn?t represent Hindutva in the true sense?. ?We might have problems with drinking or going to pubs but we would never resort to violence to stop them from visiting pubs. We would try to persuade them to have a change of heart,? he said.
Asked about factions in the RSS, wherein individual leaders were now aligned to individual leaders in the BJP, he said: ?There are no multiple views in the Sangh, and we speak in one voice. We have, however, no problems if others (read the BJP) refuse to come along?. The RSS ideologue refused to say anything on the internal strife in the BJP.