Nobody in the BJP, including its seniormost leader L.K. Advani, can overrule the RSS line of thinking. It has held firm and seen the outcome of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's liberalism in keeping out the controversial issue of Hidutva from the common minimum programme.
These pertained to building the Ram temple at the disputed Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid site, abrogation of Article 370 according special powers to Jammu and Kashmir and a Uniform Civil Code. There is not going to be any appeasement of the minority community.
This is not going to be in the forefront of Modi's development agenda. Taking the country out of the morass it finds itself in takes precedence over everything else. No doubt attempts will be made to unobtrusively sneak in these issues without raising a hue and cry from its alliance partners in case the BJP forms the government at the centre.
If the Lotus party is able to form the government on its own, the secular allies supporting the BJP can be kept at bay.
Most major formations in the political firmament claiming to be secular have reservations about Modi being prime minister. What rankles them is the possible repeat of the 2002 Gujarat riots in the form of a new pogrom probably elsewhere in the country.
