BJP falls back on Christian imagery

Hindutva icon L K Advani compared the BJP with Christian imagery. Tracing the birth of the BJP, Advani recalled that when the Janata Party split was wide open on the issue of Dual Membership of the erstwhile Jan Sangh members, who were also members of the RSS, they chose to pull out of the Janata Party on April 4, 1980, which was a Good Friday. Two days later, the BJP was formed with Atal Behari Vajpayee as party president on April 6, 1980, which happened to be Easter Sunday. While leaving Janata Party was compared to crucifixion, forming BJP was compared to rising of Christ. Besides, Vajpayee's birthday falls December 25, Chritmas day. If not in ideology, at least in imagery, the party finds comparisons with Christianity. Carrying it forward, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley compared selection of the BJP prime ministerial candidate with the selection of Pope. Recently, when scribes asked BJP president Rajnath Singh about BJP prime ministerial candidate, Arun Jaitley interjected to say that when the selection is made, white smoke will come out of the chimney. Jaitley was quick to correct himself. If smoke comes out of the chimney at the BJP headquarters, media will report that there is fire in the party! Interestingly, the party, which had nothing to do with Mahatma Gandhi at the height of Independence Movement, adopted Gandhian Socialism as its credo in 1980, which has since been discarded.