Attending the inaugural event of the birth centenary year of former VHP leader Ashok Singhal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah says,
-- "I offer my deepest salutations to all the workers who have seen Ashok Singhal, worked alongside him, heard him speak, or learned of his work through others...
"It is a matter of pride for us all that we are gathered here for the inauguration of the birth centenary celebrations of the revered Ashok Singhal. Being a part of this inauguration ceremony is a moment of immense pride for me... His life was truly enriched by qualities such as self-sacrifice, simplicity, and profound patriotism...".
"Today, that sacrifice has borne fruit. The construction of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple—a cause for which the entire Hindu community had made sacrifices, struggled, and united over the course is something we have all witnessed today...
"He (Ashok Singhal) was a personality who worked sixteen hours a day even at that advanced age; the sole inspiration behind this was his profound patriotism...".
Ashok Singhal and 'shift' in Hindu mindset
Ashok Singhal of course enjoyed good rapport with Narendra Modi and after the new mascot of the Hindutva forces was sworn in as the Prime Minister in May 2014 - the illustrious Singhal had said in laudatory tone:
"Eight hundred years after power (in Delhi) went away from Prithviraj Chauhan, it did not come back into the hands of a proud Hindu. It has happened now after 800 years".
In July 2013, he had said by 2020, India will be a 'Hindu nation'. Of course - the claim is a bit of exaggeration.
But in socio-political realm, two major Hindutva targets have been achieved --- the abrogation of the Article 370 and a Ram Temple at Ayodhya.
Perhaps even by June-July 2019; not many Indians thought these would come true.
Now, coming to the 'third mission' - the Uniform Civil Code --- a former BJP president and incumbent Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has already ruffled many a feather.
"Aa gaya samay (Time has come)," Rajnath certainly hinted about party's determination.
The Uniform Civil Code has come in a few key states and more states would have it soon.
Late Singhal was a known protege of the then RSS chief Bala Saheb Deoras and first stole limelight in 1984-85 when as the working president he had organised a "Dharam Sansad".
A much 'ambitious' mission was announced stating that the 16th century Babri Masjid ought to be replaced by a temple dedicated to Ram Lalla, where Maryada Purushottam was born.
Soon came in the Ram Janki Rath Yatra in 1985, also a brainchild of Singhal.
Late Singhal's one line question actually put the 'assertive Hindu' mission on track and the famous query was -
"After giving away Pakistan in the name of Islam, why Hindus cannot build a Ram Mandir where Lord Ram was born"?
Years later, when he breathed his last in 2015, many of his admirers said that generations after the times of Hindutva icons like Sri Aurobindo or Veer Savarkar, it was Singhal who could indoctrinate in Hindu minds that patriotism could be a 'national religion'.
Modi had pushed it further when after the mayhem in Gujarat in 2002 he had said, "There is nothing to feel ashamed about Hindutva".
With Ashok Singhal around, a large section of Hindus saw when it came to politics of alleged minority appeasement by the Congress and the 'secular socialists and Leftists', there is a good reason to retaliate and to be assertive.
This was Singhal and power politics and its influence on the Hindutva movement.
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