Pravin Togadia, the international working president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), has sent a reconciliatory message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to patch up their differences in the interests of the nation and Hindutva. The Gujarat government recently withdrew a two-decade-old attempt-to-murder case against Togadia, for which he thanked Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, and minister of state for home Pradipsinh Jadeja. When Modi was an RSS pracharak decades ago in Gujarat, Togadia was close to him. The relations between the two soured when Modi became Gujarat’s chief minister in 2001. On January 16 this year, a day after he went missing despite his Z-category security cover, Togadia had resurfaced to allege that he had been tipped off about a plan to kill him in a police encounter.

But now, Togadia has sent out his placatory message to Modi while talking TOI. “Narendrabhai, let us come together. Let us work for the nation,” Togadia said. “Unemployment of youth, the poor economic condition of farmers, the deteriorating condition of small-scale industries, and the health of the nation — these are matters of concern.” Every year, around 1 crore families become poor because of unexpected medical costs, Togadia said. “We have made some promises to the people of India,” he said. “These include tackling the rising cost of education, introducing a law in the parliament that will facilitate the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, introducing a law to protect cows, and rehabilitating Hindus in the Kashmir valley.”

Togadia said a rapprochement was necessary to fulfil those promises. “Let us sit together to resolve our differences,” Togadia said in his message to Modi. “You sit with Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan and the maulvis of India. So we can come together too, to work for the betterment of the nation. I am an old friend. We have had meals together.” Togadia also cautioned Modi “to not break the ladder which helped him on his ascent.” Such an act would be contrary to Indian culture, Togadia said.