Within less than a month of the BJP returning to power in the State, the Bajrang Dai and Vishwa Hindu Parishad have been successful in dictating terms for a beauty contest in the city ...

Even before the show was to begin at the police stadium here on 30 March, the group received a ... warning from the Bajrang Dal and VHP ... that the beauty contest should be dropped as it "did not conform with the Hindu ideals"

A deal was finally struck between the group and the VHP-Bajrang Dal activists to scrap the swimsuit round and the crowning ceremony for the "Miss Gujarat" and "Man of Gujarat" contests.

Not really satisfied ... assurances the ... activists occupied the front rows in the stadium as the sentinels of Indian cultural heritage.

The saffron sentries of culture as well as the ticket buying audience were denied their voyeuristic pleasures as the models made their appearance only in long evening gowns, and not in swimsuits ..

So terrified were the organisers that they profusely thanked Gujarat VHP leader Pravin Togadiya for permitting them to hold the show with minor omissions.                                                                                                         (Source: The Hindustan Times, March 31, 1998)