New Delhi: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an affiliate of the BJP’s ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is planning an exercise in Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) colonies, slum clusters and villages across the country ahead of Diwali to “promote social harmony” and discuss “pressing” issues related to the Hindu community, ThePrint has learnt.
This comes in the backdrop of the BJP’s below par performance in the Lok Sabha elections. It was down to 54 out of the total 131 Lok Sabha seats reserved for SC/STs this election, compared to 77 in 2019.
According to party leaders, the BJP lost SC/ST votes because of what they called Opposition propaganda about a threat to the Constitution and reservation in government jobs. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the INDIA bloc had made these two issues part of their key poll planks in the Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP’s inability to address the issue of the caste census, raised by Rahul, was also seen as a major reason behind the party’s reduced tally among SC/ST communities.
VHP functionaries said ‘Hindu Sammelans’ will be carried out in each of the 9,000 prankhands (subdivisions) of the VHP across the country. “We will invite community members and sants to participate in the sammelan and also take part in the dharm sabha where issues related to the Hindu community will be taken up,” said a functionary.
As part of the exercise, another senior VHP functionary said, the sant samaj will also carry out padyatras (marches) in the villages, which will give residents the opportunity to interact with them.
VHP president Alok Kumar said the move will promote social harmony. “In some places during the Lok Sabha elections, caste dominated over Hindutva which is an issue of concern. This programme where the sant samaj will visit the areas and will also conduct padyatras will give opportunity to the people to do their darshan.”
He added: “This will be followed by a small dharm sabha which will see representation of the entire community, including SCs and STs who will be present on the dais.”
Another functionary explained that “as part of the padyatra the sant samaj will visit and eat at a few homes belonging to the SC and ST community members”.
“An attempt is being made to divide the Hindu community over caste. This was visible during the Lok Sabha elections where an attempt was made to run a campaign that reservation would be done away with which is not at all true. These padyatras and sabhas will help the entire Hindu community to come together and bond,” said another.
Other wings of the Sangh Parivar, RSS-linked Hindutva organisations, will also play a part in the programme, functionaries said.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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