London, May 9
Varun Gandhi, whose hate speeches landed him in jail, favours conscription and intends to follow footsteps of his late father Sanjay Gandhi by offering a strong leadership.

The BJP's candidate from Pilibhit told London’s ‘The Daily Telegraph’ that he would propose a bill in Parliament to introduce compulsory military service for all Indians to unite the country and overcome caste and religious differences.

During the interview, the 29-year-old Varun said he hopes to follow in his father's footsteps by one day by offering the strong leadership, which according to him, India has been lacking for 20 years.

The newspaper correspondent, who talked to him during his election tour of Pilibhit, wrote that Gandhi has vowed to revive the controversial population control policies pioneered by his father.

Politics, Varun said, was his destiny, and added: "Anyone who says they have no ambition to achieve power at some stage is lying."

"Instead of people thinking of themselves as Tamils or Brahmins, they should think of themselves as Indians," he said.

Referring to his recent controversial remarks, Varun denied threatening Muslims, but had vowed to protect local people from "anti-social" elements after three local girls were reportedly gang-raped.

However, clarifying his report, Dean Nelson, the South Asia correspondent of the paper, told a television channel in Delhi that Gandhi did not want a return to the heavy-handed methods that were carried out by the government at that time (during the Emergency).

Gandhi was talking about using carrot rather than stick by offering incentives to the families to have fewer children. — PTI

New Delhi, May 9
Sanjay Gandhi’s son and the BJP’s candidate from Pilibhit put the party on the backfoot yet again today when he proudly endorsed his father’s deeds, including forced sterilisation, which caused an outrage during the Emergency days of 1975-77.

The Daily Telegraph of London reported today that in an interview to the paper, Varun favoured forced sterilisation, compulsory conscription in the Army and a strong leadership that Sanjay Gandhi briefly provided to the Congress and the nation as the son of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Immediately a BJP spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh said, “It’s his personal view. As far as the BJP is concerned, we promote family planning but not by forceful means. That (forced sterilisation) is not a part of our policy.”

Later the same was reiterated by another BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad who said: “We (BJP) are in favour of family planning, but not forced sterilisation.” Incidentally, the paper did not publish a direct quote on Varun Gandhi’s reported pledge.

Varun reportedly told the paper that he proposed to provide a strong leadership like his father, which the nation had been missing for last 20 years since his father died in an air crash.

This has naturally put the party in a piquant situation on several counts. First the BJP’s election plank is that since Sardar Patel’s death, only the BJP has come up with a strong leader in the shape of their prime ministerial candidate LK Advani. For the BJP, Advani is the iron man and it is not inclined to recognise anyone else stronger than Sardar Patel and LK Advani.

Moreover, the BJP and particularly Advani observe the anniversary of Emergency every year on June 25, reviving their fight against Indira Gandhi regime and the excesses of Sanjay Gandhi. It has to be seen as to how the BJP will eventually reconcile to Varun’s ideas of a strong leadership.

Incidentally Varun is still on a parole being jailed by the UP government for reportedly delivering hate speeches against the Muslim minority of his constituency and the BJP is playing the game of looking the other side while winking approval of his minority bashing campaign.