BJP to stick to Hindutva ideology

August 21st, 2009 SHIMLA - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday said it would soon have an action plan for its revival and admitted that its ideology of "cultural nationalism" needed to be articulated clearly for the expansion of its geographical and social base. "We will come out with a future action plan, you can call it the road ahead, on the basis of suggestions during the three-day chintan baithak (introspection session).

August 19th, 2009 SHIMLA - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday said that the decision to expel senior party leader Jaswant Singh was right and there cannot be any compromise on party's ideology. "We do not subscribe to the views expressed by Jaswant Singh on Jinnah and Sardar Patel.

July 26th, 2009 LUCKNOW - The Bharatiya Janata Party will not drop its Hindutva agenda at any cost, BJP president Rajnath Singh said here Sunday, adding there was no "need for making those factors public" that led to the "party's unsatisfactory performance" in the Lok Sabha elections. "We are determined to follow the Hindutva agenda.

July 26th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh Sunday said the party would not leave its Hindutva agenda at any cost. "We are determined on following the Hindutva agenda.

July 6th, 2009 PANAJI - The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) latest membership drive in Goa will aim to increase the number of minorities and women in its ranks, a party spokesman said Monday. Speaking to reporters at the launch of the state wide membership drive, former state BJP president Rajendra Arlekar said: "We would definitely like to see an increase in the percentage of minorities in the BJP ranks." He, however, refused to divulge the exact number of registered minority members in the party rolls.

June 23rd, 2009 JAMMU - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Rajnath Singh Tuesday said peace and stability in Pakistan was in "our interest" and India should offer "all support" to combat terrorism in that country. "The BJP wants peace and prosperity of Pakistan" as its stability was in "our interest", Rajnath Singh told reporters here on the sidelines of a function to mark the death anniversary of the Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who died in a state prison June 23, 1953.

June 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday reaffirmed its commitment to Hindutva - but an inclusive one, not narrowly confined only to religious practices or expressed in extreme forms". In a resolution the party unanimously adopted on the second and concluding day of its national executive meeting here, the BJP said the Hindutva which it believed in was related to the culture and ethos of the people of the country.

June 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Amid dissent and blame game, a soul-searching meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began here Saturday with its president Rajnath Singh owning up the humiliating election defeat and reiterating the party's commitment to Hindutva ideology. After days of intra-party wranglings when senior leaders demanded that heads should roll and the poll debacle must be analysed, Rajnath Singh attempted to cool off tempers by accepting the onus for the results while also underlining collective responsibility.

June 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh Saturday owned up responsibility for the party's poor electoral showing and stressed that there was no need to "single out one person" for the debacle. Singh, whose message was read out by party general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad, also maintained that the verdict of Election 2009 was not a "nationwide defeat" for the party.

June 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Amid dissent and blame game in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its president Rajnath Singh Saturday took responsibility for the party's poll debacle and reiterated the party's commitment to Hindutva. Speaking at the BJP's national executive meeting here, the first since the Lok Sabha election results, Rajnath Singh sought to address dissent by owning up responsibility for the poll debacle while allaying the concerns of the party's ideological fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), that Hindutva had been put on the backburner.

June 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - He was once a diehard Communist preaching against Hindu communalism and then key advisor to the BJP top brass strategising on policy and plans. Now, as he finds himself at the centre of a raging storm in the party and questions its Hindutva ideology, Sudheendra Kulkarni's friends wonder if he is reinventing himself one more time.

April 10th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Shiv Sena released its election manifesto here Friday, focussing more on local issues like getting a better deal for Mumbai while steering clear of Hindutva. 'It (Hindutva) is a national issue.

April 9th, 2009 BANGALORE - The manifestos of political parties appear to have sunk without a trace even before the elections begin. Instead, threat words like 'chop off', 'kick' and 'behead' or below the belt jibes hurled at opponents are dominating campaign speeches.

April 6th, 2009 BANGALORE - The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka and its main opponent Congress are involved a bitter war of words over Hindutva. Leaders from both sides made alleged inflammatory statements like cutting off the hands of the ideology's advocates and chopping off the heads of those against it.

March 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Two decades after his famous 'rath yatra' catapulted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into national reckoning, L.K. Advani is making his final bid for India's top job on a broader, non-denominational platform that talks of good governance and development with Hindutva taking a back seat.