03-07-2006, 10:01 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Godhra whitewash to Muslim count, quotas to Qureishi: For BJP, irons hot </b>
<i>Hindutva II 20 yrs after Shah Bano, united saffron front prepares to take on UPAs blatant minority appeasement </i>
MANINI CHATTERJEE
Posted online: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 0157 hours IST
NEW DELHI, MARCH 6: As their backbenchers vociferously shouted slogans to counter the entire non-NDA contingents demand for the resignation of Narendra Modi, top BJP leaders exuded a quiet sense of glee. They had more than one reason.
Their calculation: the Justice Banerjee Committee report that calls the Sabarmati Express attack an accident together with a series of blatant minority appeasement measures by the UPA government could well provide the ideal environment for the revival of Hindutva, 20 years after it burst forth on the Indian political scene.
Linking the Banerjee report to pure votebank politics, BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha V K Malhotra said: The Banerjee report being made public when the Supreme Court is monitoring the probe and Nanavati-Shah Commission is investigating the matter shows the race for minority votes, particularly in the wake of large scale protests by Muslims against the Bush visit.
That race was only too visible in the Lok Sabha today when members of the BSP, SP, RJD, Congress and Leftseldom on the same side of the fence these daysvied with one another to demand the tabling of the report and Modis resignation.
The BJP stood more or less isolated in the House. Only Shiv Sena MPs joined them to protest against Justice Banerjees conclusion that the Godhra fire had been an accident.
But it is an isolation that BJP leaders, guided by L K Advani, are beginning to relish. There is, they admit, a delicious sense of deja vu. In 1986, the Rajiv Gandhi governments decision to overturn the Shah Bano verdict provided the spark to the BJPs campaign against pseudo secularism.
The party leadership managed to convince large numbers of middle-class Indians that the Congress was unjust to Hindus and pampered obscurantist minority sentiments only to garner votes. The success of the p movement that propelled BJP to centre-stage was built on the anti pseudo secular campaign.
Compared to the Shah Bano spark in 1986, the UPA government has lit a veritable prairie fire of minority appeasement, BJP leaders claim. In closed-door meetings, Advani has been telling his colleagues that they must seize the moment just as he did in the late 1980s.
<b>The UPA governments record of minorityism, Advani & co. feel, is far worse than that of Rajiv Gandhis. The five per cent job reservation quota for Muslims by the Andhra Pradesh government, the decision to bring an ordinance to grant minority status to Aligarh Muslim University, the stated intention to overturn the Supreme Court order on the IMDT Act, the formation of a Ministry for Minority Affairs for the first time since Independence, and the setting up of the Rajinder Sachar committee to do a headcount of Muslims in all sectors of government (including, initially, the armed forces) are being cited as examples of the governments appeasement psychosis</b>.
But it is the latest twist of events the growing anti-Congress sentiment among large sections of the Muslims following what they see as the governments pro-US tilt that has bolstered BJP leaders.
<b>The Congress is now in a dilemma. At Sonia Gandhis behest, the party and government have gone out of their way to appease Muslims. But the Bush visit and the Iran issue are turning the Muslims away from the Congress towards parties such as the SP, a senior BJP leader said. </b>
<b>The Congress, therefore, is likely to make more blatant efforts to woo the Muslims (the Banerjee report is cited as a case in point) but that will only help the BJP secure its erstwhile status of being the sole spokesman of the majority community.</b>
The Congresss entire strategy, BJP ideologues feel, was based on a wrong premise. Congress believes that it lost its pre-eminent status because the Muslims abandoned the <b>party. But the Muslims never came to us, they went to Third Front parties. However, the Congresss appeasement policies created anger among the Hindu middle class and that is what helped us grow, a BJP insider explained.</b>
A similar story, the party hopes, could once again be unfolding. Now that the intra-Sangh Parivar differences have been sorted out, a united saffron offensive against minorityism is on the cards in a fervent attempt to bring about Hindutvas second coming.
Link<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<i>Hindutva II 20 yrs after Shah Bano, united saffron front prepares to take on UPAs blatant minority appeasement </i>
MANINI CHATTERJEE
Posted online: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 0157 hours IST
NEW DELHI, MARCH 6: As their backbenchers vociferously shouted slogans to counter the entire non-NDA contingents demand for the resignation of Narendra Modi, top BJP leaders exuded a quiet sense of glee. They had more than one reason.
Their calculation: the Justice Banerjee Committee report that calls the Sabarmati Express attack an accident together with a series of blatant minority appeasement measures by the UPA government could well provide the ideal environment for the revival of Hindutva, 20 years after it burst forth on the Indian political scene.
Linking the Banerjee report to pure votebank politics, BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha V K Malhotra said: The Banerjee report being made public when the Supreme Court is monitoring the probe and Nanavati-Shah Commission is investigating the matter shows the race for minority votes, particularly in the wake of large scale protests by Muslims against the Bush visit.
That race was only too visible in the Lok Sabha today when members of the BSP, SP, RJD, Congress and Leftseldom on the same side of the fence these daysvied with one another to demand the tabling of the report and Modis resignation.
The BJP stood more or less isolated in the House. Only Shiv Sena MPs joined them to protest against Justice Banerjees conclusion that the Godhra fire had been an accident.
But it is an isolation that BJP leaders, guided by L K Advani, are beginning to relish. There is, they admit, a delicious sense of deja vu. In 1986, the Rajiv Gandhi governments decision to overturn the Shah Bano verdict provided the spark to the BJPs campaign against pseudo secularism.
The party leadership managed to convince large numbers of middle-class Indians that the Congress was unjust to Hindus and pampered obscurantist minority sentiments only to garner votes. The success of the p movement that propelled BJP to centre-stage was built on the anti pseudo secular campaign.
Compared to the Shah Bano spark in 1986, the UPA government has lit a veritable prairie fire of minority appeasement, BJP leaders claim. In closed-door meetings, Advani has been telling his colleagues that they must seize the moment just as he did in the late 1980s.
<b>The UPA governments record of minorityism, Advani & co. feel, is far worse than that of Rajiv Gandhis. The five per cent job reservation quota for Muslims by the Andhra Pradesh government, the decision to bring an ordinance to grant minority status to Aligarh Muslim University, the stated intention to overturn the Supreme Court order on the IMDT Act, the formation of a Ministry for Minority Affairs for the first time since Independence, and the setting up of the Rajinder Sachar committee to do a headcount of Muslims in all sectors of government (including, initially, the armed forces) are being cited as examples of the governments appeasement psychosis</b>.
But it is the latest twist of events the growing anti-Congress sentiment among large sections of the Muslims following what they see as the governments pro-US tilt that has bolstered BJP leaders.
<b>The Congress is now in a dilemma. At Sonia Gandhis behest, the party and government have gone out of their way to appease Muslims. But the Bush visit and the Iran issue are turning the Muslims away from the Congress towards parties such as the SP, a senior BJP leader said. </b>
<b>The Congress, therefore, is likely to make more blatant efforts to woo the Muslims (the Banerjee report is cited as a case in point) but that will only help the BJP secure its erstwhile status of being the sole spokesman of the majority community.</b>
The Congresss entire strategy, BJP ideologues feel, was based on a wrong premise. Congress believes that it lost its pre-eminent status because the Muslims abandoned the <b>party. But the Muslims never came to us, they went to Third Front parties. However, the Congresss appeasement policies created anger among the Hindu middle class and that is what helped us grow, a BJP insider explained.</b>
A similar story, the party hopes, could once again be unfolding. Now that the intra-Sangh Parivar differences have been sorted out, a united saffron offensive against minorityism is on the cards in a fervent attempt to bring about Hindutvas second coming.
Link<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->