Pushing the Hindutva agenda, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has pressed for convening of a special session of the party’s National Executive to draw an “actionable” programme to implement promises like building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, abolition of Article 370 and a national ban on cow slaughter.
As a National Executive member, he told BJP president Amit Shah in a letter that there was “anxiety” among the people to know the roadmap to fulfil some of the promises made in the 2014 election manifesto on Hindutva issues.
“Now time is at hand to take stock of the promises we have given to the voters and how much we could fulfill after 11 months,” said Swamy in the two page letter to Shah. The letter, copies of which were sent to some members of the National Executive, urges the BJP-led Government to find solutions to these “outstanding” issues to bring a “renaissance” in the country’s religion, culture, history and heritage.
Swamy, who had recently launched Virat Hindustan Sangam for pursuing Hindutva issues, has said a negotiable settlement could be worked out by Hindus and Muslims for building a Ram Temple in lord Ram’s birth place. Hindus can agree to build for Muslims a new masjid across the Saryu river.
Swamy suggested that a national ban on cow slaughter could be done through enacting a Central law which is permissible under the Concurrent list of the Constitution. The abolition of Article 370 of the Constitution that gives special status to Jammu & Kashmir does not require a vote from the Parliament or the State Assembly but a notification of the President on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet, he said.
Swamy demanded a law barring the Government from taking over the management of religious institutions, which is in the Concurrent list for more than three years and declaring Ram Setu a national heritage monument. Making Sanskrit an optional language in all southern States and an alternative choice to Hindi in Hindi-speaking States and setting up of a committee to “correct” the history of India in textbooks were the other demands he made.