Muslims will be loved, but they mustn't oppose Hindus: Said by VHP leader Ashok Singhal

Muslims will be loved, but they mustn't oppose Hindus:
Said by VHP leader Ashok Singhal

The recent Lok Sabha polls had shown that an election could be won “without Muslim support” and it was time the minority community learnt to respect Hindu sentiments, VHP chief patron and senior RSS leader Ashok Singhal has said.

Narendra Modi —an “ideal swayamsevak” — would deliver on the Hindutva agenda unlike the first NDA government, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad supremo and one of the longest serving senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders told HT in an exclusive interview.

The right-wing Hindu leader, who had a front-row seat at Modi’s swearing-in, said “tables had turned”. The polls were a “setback to Muslim politics” used by “foreign and divisive forces to destroy our identity,” he said. It was time for them to learn their lessons.

“Muslims will be treated as common citizens -- nothing more, nothing less. And, they must learn torespect Hindu sentiments. If they keep opposing Hindus, how long can they survive?” said the 88-year-old who has been a lifelong pracharak of the RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP.

Asked to elaborate, Singhal said Muslims should give up claims over Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura and also accept a uniform civil code.

The VHP is understood to have asked interlocutors to convey this message to Muslim organisations.

“We’ll then give them love, and not claim any other mosque sites even though there are thousands built on the ruins of temples.

But if they don’t accept it, they should be prepared for further Hindu consolidation. It has happened at the Centre, it will happen in other states,” said Singhal, who set up the VHP and spearheaded the stir for the Ram Temple.

The temple issue, civil code and abrogation of Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, had strained the VHP’s ties with the Vajpayee government.

The Hindu outfit felt that the NDA did not come good on “core issues”.But no such apprehensions this time, Singhal said in clearest indication, so far, of the RSS’ assessmentof what the Modi government can deliver.