BJP hopes to gain from Katiyar’s appointment

NEW DELHI, 26 June — The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) signaled the revival of its hard-line Hindutava card in Uttar Pradesh, by appointing the former Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar on the hot seat of the president of its state unit, sources said here yesterday.

Katiyar’s appointment coincides with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP’s) recent declaration that it will not abide by the court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute.

Katiyar had been a leading member of the VHP’s temple campaign in 1989-92 that led to the mosque’s demolition by Hindu fanatics, an event that sparked violence between Hindus and Muslims in which some 2,000 people were killed. Katiyar was among those accused of conspiring to pull down the mosque. As a leader who strongly backs a divisive Hindu bid to build a temple on the ruins of a mosque at Ayodhya, Katiyar’s selection would placate the BJP’s strong Hindu right-wing base, a party leader said.

The party also hopes that Katiyar’s appointment would go down well with the numerically strong "backward castes" to which he belongs and which the party believes have moved away from it during the last three years, he said. With Katiyar at the helm, the BJP would hope to shore up its sagging fortunes in UP, where it was rudely voted out of power in assembly elections in February. Katiyar, an MP from Faizabad, was Monday appointed the head of BJP’s wing in UP. He faces the daunting task of reviving the party’s demoralized workers.

He takes over from Kalraj Mishra, who quit the post this month citing his failure to lead the party to a win in the February elections to the state assembly. The BJP is a junior partner in Chief Minister Mayawati’s multiparty coalition.

Katiyar’s appointment is an example of the BJP’s return two months ago at Goa conclave, to an aggressive Hindu posturing, four years after it eschewed that stance to become acceptable to its many allies in Vajpayee’s coalition. His appointment confirms that the BJP was inching closer to its affiliate the VHP, the group behind the temple campaign, the BJP leader said.