New Delhi, August 22: Despite Varun Gandhi’s hate speech, which raised questions on the need for the party to rethink its core ideology soon after the second successive electoral debacle, BJP president Rajnath Singh asserted that Hindutva was non-negotiable; the BJP was committed to the core ideology that nurtured the party and there would be no compromise on it.
At the conclusion of the Chintan Baithak, Rajnath Singh declared that the philosophy of cultural nationalism and integral humanism propounded by party ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay was inclusive and there was no scope for discrimination.
This assumes significance in the wake of demands by sections of the party to steer clear of Hindutva, as it only led to polarisation of the minorities and helped their consolidation behind the Congress.
Rejecting the thesis, Rajnath Singh underscored the need to showcase and articulate it in terms that would make it easily understood by all and to woo wider sections of the people towards the party. The BJP president also declared that Leader of the Opposition L K Advani would continue to lead the party.
Rajnath underlined the need for building up a new line of leadership from the mandal level upwards. The youth, he insisted, remained by and large with the BJP. The party also felt there was a need to strengthen the NDA as a coalition was necessary to take on the Congress.
Rajnath said that the BJP general secretaries would meet in the capital to discuss the elaborate suggestions received from various quarters and chalk out an action plan to be put up for the approval of the next BJP national executive. The party leadership failed to fix accountability for the electoral debacle at the Chintan Baithak.
-Agencies