Prime Minister Narendra Modi (file photo)December 25 portends a clash between the two mandates of the Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has won a promise of economic growth and all round prosperity wants Christmas to be observed as good governance day, as it happens to be the birthday of the first BJP Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad which considers the BJP's victory as the triumph of its brand of Hindutva wants to use the same day for reconversion of Muslims and Christians. The VHP does not recognise Vajpayee or any other prime minister as Hindus. It had declared at a world Hindu conference, attended by several senior cabinet colleagues of Modi, that the Hindus have occupied the Delhi throne first time after legendary ruler Prithviraj Chauhan.
It is not just Vishwa Hindu Parishad which claims the mandate to be its own. Even the Sangh Parivar activists who have won on BJP tickets have insisted that the agenda is for aggressive Hindutva - whether it is re-conversions, enforcement of Sanskrit as a compulsory subject, describing Gandhi's killer as a patriot, and adoption of Bhagavad Gita as the national book. Though the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the umbrella organisation has said it will wait for five years for Modi to fulfill its nationalist agenda, MPs like Avaidyanath, Chinmayand, Niranjan Jyoti all of whom come from a religious background have said they would give priority for Hindutva projects of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Modi had in his address to the nation from the red fort on independence day had appealed for a ten year moratorium on controversies so that all the people together can work towards achieving his goals of full employment, development of skills, making goods for the world in India, and making India a clean country. He himself in his addresses at conferences and on radio has kept the focus on the development agenda. But Modi has also been silent on the kind of demands made by his own ministers and MPs, apart from the strident programmes of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which is as much part of the Sangh Parivar as the BJP. Even though he is celebrating Vajpayee as a role model, Modi has not followed Vajpayee's path on keeping a distance from the hardliners. During his six years as prime minister, Vajpayee kept the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on a tight leash and did not have a very cosy relationship with the then RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan.
Only Arun Jaitley,the powerful minister for finance as well as information and broadcasting has asked his party colleagues not to raise issues which will help obstructionists in the opposition and civil society to block the government's agenda. Jaitley has said he will go forward with economic liberalisation which includes opening up more sectors for foreign investments, especially as another Sangh affiliate Swadeshi Jagaran Manch is holding a special session in Bhubaneshwar from December 26 (a day after the good governance and reconversion campaigns) to decide its attitude on pro foreign investment policies of Modi and Jaitley. The big question is whether Modi would break his silence or work his connections within the Sangh Parivar so that the focus remains on the good governance initiative.
Tailpiece: Modi does not take holidays and he will not allow others. The five million strong confederation of government employees is brainstorming on hos to deal with Modi's command to make employees work on government holidays. On Gandhi Jayanti day, employees came to offices to launch clean India campaign. Now they are expected to be in office on Christmas holiday for the good governance campaign. They don't what he has up his short sleeve for republic day, the next big holiday.
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