Shekhawat advice to BJP: Adapt to change

“In 1952,when I was first elected to the Rajasthan Assembly,I decided to launch an agitation against the jagirdari system. Similarly,I spoke out against sati after the Deorala incident,” Shekhawat said,speaking to The Indian Express at his residence. Many Bharatiya Jan Sangh leaders in Rajasthan had then threatened action against Shekhawat for taking a position against the jagirdari system,while many Rajput leaders in Rajasthan had spoken in favour of the sati in the late ‘80s.

While there is a view that the RSS and BJP has not been able to appreciate the changed conditions in the country and society,Shekhawat himself stopped short of saying that,and of talking about the specifics of the present crisis in the BJP. However,he advised,they must talk and identify the changing circumstances. “Every political party witnesses ups and down in their lives. There’s nothing new in this,” he said.

Asked if “changed circumstances” should also force a rethink on the core issue of ideology,Shekhawat said that any worthwhile change can only be brought about by a change in ideology. Asked if the BJP (and the RSS) then must refashion their core of Hindutva,and have a more broad-based agenda,Shekhawat,however,replied: “Hindutva is a broad concept for those who understand it properly. Those who fail to understand it in its entirety find it a narrow idea.”

In the past one year,Shekhawat has spoken out against the Vasundhara Raje regime in Rajasthan,and supported BJP rebel Jaswant Singh recently,but on Sunday he refused to comment on the various personalities caught in the present crisis in the BJP/RSS.