Bhopal, Dec. 18: They came, they sat and they listened... to Deendayal katha.
For the past three days, several ministers and key leaders in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh sat through two-hour-long recitals on Deendayal Upadhyaya's life and philosophy, almost along the lines of the Ram katha, underscoring the Jana Sangh ideologue's status within the parivar.
Among those who sat and heard Alok Kumar, a senior RSS functionary, narrate the story of Upadhyaya's life were chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Assembly Speaker Sitasharan Sharma, state party chief Nandkumar Chauhan and several ministers.
Archana Chitnis, the state minister for women and child development who served as the convener of the December 16-18 event, organised under the aegis of the Deendayal Shodh Sansthan, a Delhi-based NGO, said similar katha sessions would be held in Mumbai, Raipur and Chennai.
"Pandit Deendayalji provided us the extract of knowledge and wisdom. His thoughts are the culmination of different views and knowledge from the Vedas to Vivekananda," Chitnis told The Telegraph, adding that the Madhya Pradesh government was thinking of including the late leader's concept of " ekatma manavwaad" (integral humanism) in school curricula.
Earlier, at the party's national council meet at Kozhikode this September, Prime minister Narendra Modi had launched yearlong celebrations to mark Upadhyaya's birth centenary year.
At the recitals in Bhopal, Kumar, associate head of the RSS, Delhi region, highlighted Upadhyaya's concept of integral humanism, focussing on his cultural nationalism and economic philosophy. Kumar told the audience how Upadhyaya's ideology - that integrated the body, mind, wisdom and soul - was relevant to the society and the country.
In his writings and speeches, Upadhyaya (1916-1968) had said he was open to the idea of Muslim induction in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the earlier avatar of the BJP), provided they overtly opposed Pakistan-founder M.A. Jinnah's two-nation theory.
He was even prepared to accept a "Muslim Leaguer (a member of the party led by Jinnah) participating in post-independence Indian politics", Upadhyaya had said. "But if he is still a believer in the two-nation theory, then I certainly have objections."
In mid-1967, Upadhyaya was asked at a media conference about the number of Muslim members in the Jana Sangh. "We in the Jana Sangh do not care to count the number of its members on the basis of religion," he had replied. "We do not make a distinction on the basis of religion. The Jana Sangh is a nationalist organisation and does not care about its members' religion or religious belief."
Despite repeated queries, he did not name the Muslim leaders in the Jana Sangh or the number of Muslims in the organisation.
The Jana Sangh of Upadhyaya's era and later years did have some Muslim presence. Among them was the writer Imdad Sabri who represented the BJS in the Delhi Metropolitan Council and rose to become the mayor.
Former Union minister and BJP leader Arif Beg, who died in Bhopal recently, had joined the Jana Sangh in 1973.
Upadhyaya had said there should be complete freedom to practice religion but faith had no place in politics. "(The) Jana Sangh believes that its members have a right to practice their religion. The party has nothing to do with it. Members can be followers of sanatan dharma, Islam, Christianity, Arya Samaj and Jainism, but we would not discriminate among them)," he had said.
Chaturvedi Badrinath, a former IAS officer who wrote extensively on Upadhyaya's thoughts, claims the Jana Sangh leader advocated a thesis that dharma did not lie in the rule of the majority.
Badrinath says Upadhyaya disagreed with the then RSS sarsanghchalak M.S. Golwalkar's vision of a Hindu India.
Atul Jain, general secretary of the Deendayal Research Institute, said the narrative at the three-day event was similar to that of the Ram katha. "But there is no attempt to elevate Deendayal Upadhyaya to an avatar. The content is about patriotism, political ideology and vision."
