BJP chief Rajnath Singh seen wearing traditional topi at Lucknow shrine
An image of BJP president Rajnath Singh wearing a traditional Muslim cap has stirred a political debate a day after a top cleric of Lucknow compared him to former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
(We are scared of Modi, but Rajnath is like Vajpayee: top Shia cleric)Mr Singh is seen wearing the cap while offering prayers at a shrine in Lucknow, from where he is running for Parliament. The picture was reportedly taken at Baba Mir Kasim's shrine in the beginning of this month, after the BJP chief filed his nomination papers. His aides say there is no political significance in the gesture; he was only honouring the custom of a shrine with which he has had a long association.
The picture has surfaced on social media just after the BJP chief's meeting with Muslim religious leaders on Monday, which was also seen as a big step from a party that has, for years, had an uneasy relationship with Muslim voters.
(BJP chief Rajnath Singh meets Muslim clerics in Lucknow)The Congress has pitched this election as a fight between secularism and communalism and said that Narendra Modi's brand of nationalism could be dangerous for the country.
Mr Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, had refused to wear a skull cap offered to him by a Muslim leader in 2011, an episode that is cited by many of his critics as a sign of his hardline stance.
(Controversy over Modi's alleged refusal to wear skull cap)But Mr Modi says while he respects the tradition of others, he lives by his own and does not believe in appeasement for the sake of politics. "This is why I cannot fool people by posing for photographs wearing a cap," he said in an interview.
That the BJP president has done what Mr Modi refused to do, could start a fresh debate within the party over the legacy of Mr Vajpayee, five-time MP from Lucknow and the party's tallest leader.
(Opinion: BJP and the Muslim Vote)Top Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad, one of the Muslim leaders Mr Singh met with, has stirred the pot with his comment to NDTV yesterday: "We are scared of Narendra Modi, but Rajnath Singh has the acceptability of Vajpayee."