Now, Deendayal on Raj letterheads

The BJP has asked its elected representatives in Rajasthan to use a logo featuring a photograph of RSS icon Deendayal Upadhyay on their letterheads for all official correspondence, senior party leaders and officials told HT on Saturday.

The move drew an angry reaction from the opposition Congress which accuses the BJP government at the Centre of trying to impose Hindutva ideology in the country and of turning controversial figures into icons.

BJP national joint secretary and Rajasthan in-charge V Satish gave instructions for using the logo during a party meeting in Jaipur on Friday, a senior BJP leader said.

The meeting was attended by the heads of various municipal corporations, commissions and boards. The logo will also be used by ministers on their letterheads.

“We were shown a sample of the logo with photos of Pt Deendayal Upadhyay and other senior BJP leaders. We have been directed to print the logo on letterheads within two or three days,” Bharatpur mayor Shiv Singh Bhont told HT.

Upadhyay was a founding member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a political party formed by the RSS, the idealogical fountainhead of the BJP. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was the forerunner of the BJP.

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Three militants of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were killed in an encounter with security forces in Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

A police personnel was also injured in the operation in Amargarh.

Police said that after receiving specific inputs, the Amargarh area was cordoned around midnight. The militants were hiding inside a house, and the security forces asked them to surrender. When they refused, a gun battle began around 2am and ended at 5.55am, officials said.

“We requested the terrorists to surrender but they opened fire, we responded in the same way then,” Rajeshwar Jamwal,commanding officer of the Indian Army’s 52 Rashtriya Rifles, told the media.

Though the fire fight ended,

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