This ... was a public manifestation of the RSS-VHP combine's work and influence in the USA. Vajpayee was sharing a platform with the VHP leaders for the first time after becoming Prime Minister, and that too abroad ... On the stage ... there were some of the leading lights who organized the demolition of the Babari Masjid at Ayodhya in 1996 like Ashok Singhal and Giriraj Kishore of the VHP, some of the sadhus who played a leading role in the Ram Janamabhoomi movement, industrialists like B.K. Modi who have been financing the VHP in India, and senior bureaucrats who at one time or the other helped the RSS combine in their plans to project Hindutva ...

A strong contingent of sadhus mobilized by the VHP. was present at the meeting addressed by Vajpayee. They had gone to New York to attend the World Peace Summit ... From India, the VHP had taken over the job of sending a big delegation to the ... meeting on world peace ... The Modi and the Hinduja Foundations were among the sponsors of the meeting of world religious leaders.

I1 was in the presence of this VHP contingent and the international media that Vajpayee made his by now notorious speech where he declared his life-long allegiance to the RSS, and to the goals of Hindutva including the building of the Ram temple at the site where the Babari Masjid stood in Ayodhya.

For sections of the bought-up press and its editors who were present at the meeting, Vajpayee's plain speaking proved embarrassing. Efforts began soon after to explain away the remarks ... Vajpayee himself issued a statement clarifying that the reference to his being a swayamsevk was meant as a volunteer for the country and not to any organisation (sic) !.

But for those who attended the meeting ... the message could not have been clearer. The Prime Minister of India goes on to a platform organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in the USA and declares his allegiance to a creed which is inimical to the secular democratic principles of the Indian Constitution.

... The meeting was planned with great care and in close coordination between the VHP leadership, the BJP leadership and the officials of the Prime Minister's office. One of the General Secretaries of the BJP, Narendra Modi, was present on the occasion. The VHP leadership had planned every detail of the meeting in advance. The Prime Minister knew very well where he was going, and whom he was going to address.

The VHP has a strong presence in the USA through its affiliate the VHP of America (VHPA). The VHPA is one of the major fundraisers in the USA for the RSS combine in India. In 1993 alone, the VHPA's income was $1.06 million. An allied group, the India Development and Relief Fund, raised about $2 million in the 1990s. The VHPA network raised substantial funds for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and alongwith the overseas BJP, finances both the RSS and the BJP. Not only the VIIP but organisations like the Hinduja Foundation are also active in promoting Hindutva in America. For Vajpayee to attend a meeting organised by the VHPA and the overseas BJP would naturally be a matter of priority ...

Even when there was a Congress government in office at the Centre, in the higher echelons of bureaucracy and other instruments of the state, there were people who shared the RSS viewpoint. Today when Vajpayee is the Prime Minister of a coalition government, though the BJP is in a minority, as he put it, "We have been able to do a lot". What Vajpayee held out to the Hindutva acolytes in the US, is the goal of capturing power and converting India into a Hindu Rashtra when the BJP gets a "two-thirds majority ... The Staten Island meeting is a warning to other parties afflicted by greed for power and opportunism, that their days are numbered if they continue to be on the BJP bandwagon ... (Source: The People's Democracy)

CPI: GS A.B. Bardhan On Vajpayee's Dreams

We, of the Left had never harboured any illusions ... We had several occasions to point, that Vajpayee is a 'swayamsevak', that he continues to be so while being a prime minister, that essentially the RSS/ VHP/BD are carrying out their particular agenda, that at certain times, as head of the government, he is obliged to tell them not to cross the 'Laxmanrekha'. And that is about all ... Vajpayee remarked: "We will create an India of our dreams, if only the people gave us two-third majority".

Who are these 'WE', and whose dreams does he mean by 'Our Dreams'?

Clearly, the 'WE' here refers to the VHP crowd – the Sangh Parivar, and 'Our Dreams' refers to the particular dream of the Parivar ...

The India of the 'Parivar's dream' is not the India of 'every Indian's dream'. And it is for realizing the 'Parivar's dream' that Vajpayee wants a 'two-third majority ...

... The Sangh Parivar (and that let us repeat, includes the BJP) dreams of a 'Hindu Rashtra'. That is the essence of their 'Hindutva'. All this requires changing the Constitution ... The gentlemen who are in this panel may not go so far as to recommend Hindu Rashtra in so many words. But by raising so many questions about the (Review) Constitution, rather than specifying a few amendments to serve the present purpose, they will help to create the atmosphere for changing it. It is for this a two- third majority is required ... (Source: The New Age, 17-23 Sept., 2000)