Varun Gandhi found himself virtually friendless at the BJP National Executive meet here.

Gandhi, whose hate-speeches created controversy for him and for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, was under attack at the two-day meet which concluded on Sunday.

"At our office-bearers meeting two days back, two eminent colleagues of ours affirmed their faith in Hindutva but cautioned against any narrow, bigoted, anti-Muslim interpretation being put on it," senior BJP leader L K Advani said in his concluding remarks on Sunday.

This was seen as an apparent attempt to distance himself

from Gandhi's hate-speech.

His reference was to BJP leaders Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and

Shahnawaz Hussain who had contended even at the executive

meeting that Gandhi's speech had cost the party dearly in the

elections.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Maharashtra BJP leader Gopinath Munde said it was wrong for the BJP to take the stand that people from a particular community did not vote for the party and so it could be ignored.

The political resolution adopted at the meet too sought to disagree with the contention of Gandhi, which has been derisively being referred by his detractors in the party as "Pilibhit brand of Hindutva."

"Theocracy or any form of bigotry is alien to our ethos. Hinduism or, Hindutva is not to be understood or, construed narrowly confined only to religious practices or expressed in extreme forms," the resolution said.

Giving equal treatment to all regardless of their personal faith is integral to Hindutva, the resolution emphasised.

... contd.