Undeterred by the Bharatiya Janata Party's decisive defeat in Delhi, the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Mohan Bhagwat, spoke the language of Hindu triumphalism on Tuesday.
"In the US, the worship of Hindu gods and goddesses is on the rise," Bhagwat told a large gathering of people in Khargone district in Madhya Pradesh.
He called Hindus to unite and be “achha, pakka, sachcha” (good, unwavering, true). "We need power, military strength to protect our goodness, our purity of character and our diverse culture," he is reported to have said.
All in the name
Closer to the national capital, in Aligarh, BJP leader Sadhvi Prachi Arya called for the city to be renamed Harigarh, while exhorting the activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to work for the conversion of 150 million people to Hinduism.
Arya also asked for Veer Savarkar to be recognised as the Father of the Nation instead of Mahatma Gandhi. "The true sacrifice for attaining freedom was carried out by others. The credit for India's independence was wrongly attributed to Gandhi when it should have been given to Vir Savarkar and Bhagat Singh," she said.
Arya had risen to national fame two weeks ago when she outdid her male counterparts who have been asking Hindu women to produce four children each. Not only did she reaffirm that view, she defended it by saying she wasn’t asking Hindu women to “produce 40 puppies.”
Arya is the second Sadhvi who's made national headlines in recent months for abusive comments on religious minorities.
Bytes that bite
In December, BJP MP Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti had described the Modi government as a government of “Ramzaadon” as opposed to that of “Haraamzaadon.” Standing next to her while she made that speech was Manjinder Singh Sirsa of the Shiromani Akali Dal, an ally of BJP.
Sirsa contested and lost from the Rajouri Garden seat in west Delhi. On Tuesday, he did not mince his words as he blamed his defeat on the Sadhvi. "The language she [Jyoti] used is not acceptable to anyone. It immediately alienated Muslim voters of my constituency," he told the Indian Express.
Losing the plot
But the Hindutva organisations clearly don’t see the defeat in Delhi as a rejection of their politics. They believe that the Modi government lost because it did not pursue the Hindutva agenda seriously enough.
"Jaisi karni waisi bharni (as you sow, you reap)," a member of the Dharma Jagran Samiti, Satyanarayan Navman, told the Times of India.
Could the saffron organisations be reading the Delhi verdict wrong, as many BJP supporters have argued? Even people in tribal Madhya Pradesh seemed to have little enthusiasm for Hindutva speeches. "Bhagwat, whose speech began before schedule, could not connect with the audience, especially women seated in the front, many of whom left midway," reported the Indian Express.
"In the US, the worship of Hindu gods and goddesses is on the rise," Bhagwat told a large gathering of people in Khargone district in Madhya Pradesh.
He called Hindus to unite and be “achha, pakka, sachcha” (good, unwavering, true). "We need power, military strength to protect our goodness, our purity of character and our diverse culture," he is reported to have said.
All in the name
Closer to the national capital, in Aligarh, BJP leader Sadhvi Prachi Arya called for the city to be renamed Harigarh, while exhorting the activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to work for the conversion of 150 million people to Hinduism.
Arya also asked for Veer Savarkar to be recognised as the Father of the Nation instead of Mahatma Gandhi. "The true sacrifice for attaining freedom was carried out by others. The credit for India's independence was wrongly attributed to Gandhi when it should have been given to Vir Savarkar and Bhagat Singh," she said.
Arya had risen to national fame two weeks ago when she outdid her male counterparts who have been asking Hindu women to produce four children each. Not only did she reaffirm that view, she defended it by saying she wasn’t asking Hindu women to “produce 40 puppies.”
Arya is the second Sadhvi who's made national headlines in recent months for abusive comments on religious minorities.
Bytes that bite
In December, BJP MP Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti had described the Modi government as a government of “Ramzaadon” as opposed to that of “Haraamzaadon.” Standing next to her while she made that speech was Manjinder Singh Sirsa of the Shiromani Akali Dal, an ally of BJP.
Sirsa contested and lost from the Rajouri Garden seat in west Delhi. On Tuesday, he did not mince his words as he blamed his defeat on the Sadhvi. "The language she [Jyoti] used is not acceptable to anyone. It immediately alienated Muslim voters of my constituency," he told the Indian Express.
Losing the plot
But the Hindutva organisations clearly don’t see the defeat in Delhi as a rejection of their politics. They believe that the Modi government lost because it did not pursue the Hindutva agenda seriously enough.
"Jaisi karni waisi bharni (as you sow, you reap)," a member of the Dharma Jagran Samiti, Satyanarayan Navman, told the Times of India.
Could the saffron organisations be reading the Delhi verdict wrong, as many BJP supporters have argued? Even people in tribal Madhya Pradesh seemed to have little enthusiasm for Hindutva speeches. "Bhagwat, whose speech began before schedule, could not connect with the audience, especially women seated in the front, many of whom left midway," reported the Indian Express.
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