VHP to rope in youth to achieve Ram temple target

To impose itself on young India’s social consciousness, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has worked out a new ‘strategy’ in the run up to the fast approaching Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid issue, due next month.

Prashant Hartalkar, organising secretary of VHP in Maharastra region, who recently addressed a workshop exclusively for ‘Hindutva-oriented’ journalists here, had said that the strategic change in the organisation’s media plan was the result of a growing need felt to target young audience.

“We must tap blogs and twitter space to rope in youngsters who stay hours at places like (Cafe) Coffee Day spending hundreds of rupees on coffee. They are completely ignorant of the Ram Janmabhoomi issue. India is a young country and we cannot afford to alienate youngsters in this movement,” Hartalkar said.

Hartalkar said the VHP was left with no option but to focus more on regional media and local cable television networks over the secular (sic) national media.

“The national media is important, but it has now become the arm of the Government. They are killing our news. Their point of view is the so-called secular and anti-Hindu. We must focus on the regional media to put forth our point of view,” Hartalkar said.

“The local media is hungry for news, as against its national counterparts and also has greater reach and has a better pulse of the mofussil population,” he added.

Hartalkar is conducting similar exclusive media workshops in Maharashtra as well. The workshop was exclusively for ‘Hindutva journalists,’ and attendance was by invite only.

During the workshop, Hartalkar spoke on controversial issues relating to the Ram Janmabhoomi, which the VHP functionary said, “cannot not be spoken in front of all journalists and therefore has to be discussed only with those journalists with a Hindu base”. Besides a media makeover, another issue discussed by Hartalkar was the element of purushartha (physical bravery), which was required in the campaign for bringing the Ram temple into being.

“Shri Ram’s life was a symbol of purushartha. He killed evil and aggressors by creating a united team. We need to emulate this purushartha. We need to fight unitedly and build the mandir, not as Ram temple but as a national temple,” Hartalkar said.

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