Patna, June 25: The writing is on the wall, rather, the to-be-constructed memorial.

The Narendra Modi cabinet's decision to set up a national memorial for the socialist icon Jayaprakash Narayan at his ancestral village in Saran district is aimed at softening the battle pitch for the BJP against JP's two powerful protégés, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar, who have joined hands to stop the party from coming to power in Bihar.

The memorial is also said to be part of the game plan of the party's absence of legacy - something the Congress and Socialists possess - to "appropriate" icons from other streams. The BJP celebrated the birth anniversary of another socialist icon, Karpoori Thakur - mentor to Lalu and Nitish - in January this year.

"The BJP has a dubious history lacking in right legacy and legends. By announcing to make a memorial in JP's name, they cannot appropriate JP from us. JP gave a call for janeu todo (break sacred thread) movement to end inequality and establish equality, which the parochial BJP did not adhere to," Lalu said, adding: "The JP's followers are not fool to be carried by the BJP's gimmicks."

How far its decision to set up the memorial at JP's ancestral village at Lalatola - part of the cluster of 27 hamlets settled in the diara (riverine area) along the Ghaghra river spread over in Saran and Uttar Pradesh's Ballia districts - will help the BJP is not known. But the decision has hardly drawn an enthusiastic response either from the Sitabdiara village or the adherent of JP.

None else than a senior BJP leader, Yashwant Singh, who also happens to be a resident of JP's Sitabdiara village, said: "The very existence of Sitabdiara as a whole and Lalatola in particular is endangered for decades because of massive erosion caused by the Ghaghra. The erosion has obliterated the existence of many settlements and is threatening others. The government should come out with a plan to save Sitabdiara first; then it should think of building a memorial."

Another veteran activist of the JP-sponsored Total Revolution and former MP, Shivanand Tiwary, said: "I have written several letters to the Union minister for river development and Ganga rejuvenation, Uma Bharti, requesting her to save the village that produced JP, one of the greatest ever icons of Indian history. The village is on the verge of losing its existence. But the Union government has not replied to my letter. Announcing to make a memorial at an endangered settlement is a big gimmick. Nothing more."

Tiwary, however, said: "No one can raise an objection to the memorial coming up at JP's birthplace. But the birthplace should be saved first."

Neutral political observers and even some old Total Revolution activists opined that the BJP was not "wholly misplaced" in appropriating JP's legacy. "While fashioning the Total Revolution against Indira Gandhi-led Congress regime in 1970s, JP brought several parties, including Jan Sangh (earlier avatar of BJP), under one umbrella called Janata Party, which overthrew the Congress for the first time from the Centre in 1977," said Surendra Kishore, a former JP movement activist and journalist.

Kishore added: "While bringing different political streams, right and Left, together, JP was never carried by others' ideologies. Rather, he influenced others in a great way. For instance, the then Sangh (RSS-BJP) leaders, A.B. Vajpayee and Nanaji Deshmukh accepted JP as their leader and turned moderate under his influence."

In fact, the BJP too has many leaders - Sushil Kumar Modi and Ravi Shankar Prasad - who owe their political career to the JP movement. Then ABVP activist, Sushil Modi, was a leading light of the JP movement and takes pride in describing himself as its "product".

Some observers also felt that because of his grounding in the JP movement, the party's Bihar face, Sushil Modi, carries an image of a "moderate" and "liberal" leader. Sushil Modi, in fact, has never identified himself with the likes of Sakshi Maharaj and Mahant Avaidyanath who are known for their anti-minority rhetoric.

The BJP patriarch, L.K. Advani, launched his rath yatra against corruption from Sitabdiara on October 11, 2011, when the then Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi, reportedly rejected him the permission to do it from Somnath (Gujarat). But even the BJP leaders, particularly drawn from southern region of north Bihar's Saran district nestling Sitabdiara, feel that saving Sitabdiara from erosion was more important than announcing a memorial.