Sangh Parivar buys Jaitley's 'opportunistic' clarification

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and senior BJP leader LK Advani came to the defence of BJP leader Arun Jaitley over the WikiLeaks expose that said he had called Hindutva an "opportunistic" issue.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and senior BJP leader LK Advani came to the defence of BJP leader Arun Jaitley over the WikiLeaks expose that said he had called Hindutva an "opportunistic" issue.

HT Image

With this, the Sangh Parivar has officially decided to buy Jaitley's clarification on an issue that has made the BJP feel the heat after having roundly attacked the government over WikiLeaks.

"I think the BJP leadership has also clarified about their ideological position. As far as we are concerned, Hindutva is the sheet anchor of our ideological movement," RSS leader Ram Madhav said, when asked about Jaitley's comments. Thus, while reiterating the Sangh's commitment to Hindutva, he suggested the Sangh was officially with Jaitley's defence.

RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Manmohan Vaidya told HT. "Jaitley ji's clarification is sufficient."

Advani said in Mumbai that Jaitley had clarified that he did not use the word "opportunistic". "The cable is correct, but the interpretation is wrong," he said.

Jaitley himself again made light of the Congress charge against him over the leaked cables. "Any comment or use of phrase used by a US diplomat such as 'opportunistic' is completely inconsistent to views expressed by us. It is inconsistent to our phraseology or ideology. It is neither our view nor our ideology," he said.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari had also sprung to Jaitley's defence as soon as the controversy had cropped up, saying that the BJP leader had not used the term attributed to him.

Incidentally, the Sangh defence comes after S Gurumurthi, considered to be among RSS "intellectuals" and one of the authors of the controversial BJP task force report on black money, reportedly wrote to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat complaining about Jaitley's alleged use of the term "opportunistic" for Hindutva..

However, while reiterating that Hindutva is non-negotiable, the Sangh has made it clear that it stands with Jaitley on the matter.