03-08-2006, 11:04 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>BJP seeks to channelise 'Hindu anger' </b>
Pineer News Service / New Delhi
Advani, Rajnath to lead yatras, Parliament resounds to Har, Har Mahadev ----- At a time the Congress and its UPA allies are vying with each other to woo the Muslim vote bank at the cost of endangering national security, the blasts at Varanasi have given the BJP a focal point to mobilise popular resentment against the Government's politics of minority appeasement.
In an obvious attempt to channelise the Hindu anger, party veteran and Leader of Opposition LK Advani on Wednesday announced that he and BJP chief Rajnath Singh would undertake twin 'national integration yatras' across the nation.
Launching a scathing attack on <span style='color:red'>the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and the "minorityism" being pursued by the Congress-led Government</span>, Mr Advani said he and Mr Singh would embark on the yatras to warn the people against this brand of politics.
<b>"Between us, we will try to cover the country in two-three weeks time. The logistics including when to start and where to start is being worked out,"</b> Mr Advani told reporters.
While Mr Advani was unfolding his plans to galvanise the BJP's core support base, party <b>MPs raised the slogans of "Har Har Mahadev" in Parliament</b>, protesting the terror attack in Varanasi. There were unmistakable signals that the saffron party was finally coming out of a phase it would best like to leave behind.
Asked whether the yatras were being taken out with an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections in five States, Mr Advani was candid enough to admit that the BJP wanted to increase its support base.
<b>"We are a political party. We cannot disregard the polls in the five States. Both Rajnath Singh and myself have to address several election rallies. But the yatra would also pass through areas which are not relevant to the polls,"</b> he said.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>The BJP will not celebrate Holi this year to empathise with the innocent victims of the terrorist mayhem and a group of senior party leaders, including him, would visit the Sankat Mochan temple on March 16, Mr Advani added.</span>
The BJP leader maintained,<b> "India is what it is because it is Hindu."</b> He pointed out that despite the country being partitioned on communal lines and Pakistan declaring itself an Islamic state India has remained democratic and secular because it is pre-dominantly Hindu.
He said he had raised the issue of cross-border terrorism with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf during his visit to Pakistan last year and US President George W Bush during his recent visit to India.
"The impression all over the world that terrorism has abated ever since India and Pakistan commenced a dialogue is not correct. I told both the leaders that we in India would not feel assured till the terrorist infrastructure across the border is not fully dismantled, till the assistance of weapons, communication and finances does not stop. It has not happened so far. There should be no let up in our effort to see that the terrorist infrastructure in that country is dismantled," he said.
Mr Advani warned that the Congress-led Government was playing a dangerous game. "In the present global context, any political party which promotes minorityism for the sake of vote bank is dangerously contributing to religious fundamentalism and thereby causing a grave threat to national unity and security," he said.
He underscored that the BJP had come to occupy a central place in Indian politics because of its "uncompromising stand on minorityism which has been by and large endorsed by the people."
<b>"We had given the country terms like pseudo-secularism and from a strength of two in Parliament, we emerged as the principal ruling party for six years,"</b> the Leader of Opposition said.
"Minorityism as a political gambit can have dangerous consequences and it sometimes becomes anti-national," he said.
<b>He cited the reservations in Andhra Pradesh and Aligarh Muslims University, the backdoor revival of the IMDT that was struck down by the Supreme Court, creation of a separate Ministry for Minorities and Muslim headcount in the armed forces as "minorityism" perpetrated by the UPA Government.</b>
The former deputy prime minister also said the proposed yatras were against the "disruption of national unity and putting national security in jeopardy".
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Pineer News Service / New Delhi
Advani, Rajnath to lead yatras, Parliament resounds to Har, Har Mahadev ----- At a time the Congress and its UPA allies are vying with each other to woo the Muslim vote bank at the cost of endangering national security, the blasts at Varanasi have given the BJP a focal point to mobilise popular resentment against the Government's politics of minority appeasement.
In an obvious attempt to channelise the Hindu anger, party veteran and Leader of Opposition LK Advani on Wednesday announced that he and BJP chief Rajnath Singh would undertake twin 'national integration yatras' across the nation.
Launching a scathing attack on <span style='color:red'>the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and the "minorityism" being pursued by the Congress-led Government</span>, Mr Advani said he and Mr Singh would embark on the yatras to warn the people against this brand of politics.
<b>"Between us, we will try to cover the country in two-three weeks time. The logistics including when to start and where to start is being worked out,"</b> Mr Advani told reporters.
While Mr Advani was unfolding his plans to galvanise the BJP's core support base, party <b>MPs raised the slogans of "Har Har Mahadev" in Parliament</b>, protesting the terror attack in Varanasi. There were unmistakable signals that the saffron party was finally coming out of a phase it would best like to leave behind.
Asked whether the yatras were being taken out with an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections in five States, Mr Advani was candid enough to admit that the BJP wanted to increase its support base.
<b>"We are a political party. We cannot disregard the polls in the five States. Both Rajnath Singh and myself have to address several election rallies. But the yatra would also pass through areas which are not relevant to the polls,"</b> he said.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>The BJP will not celebrate Holi this year to empathise with the innocent victims of the terrorist mayhem and a group of senior party leaders, including him, would visit the Sankat Mochan temple on March 16, Mr Advani added.</span>
The BJP leader maintained,<b> "India is what it is because it is Hindu."</b> He pointed out that despite the country being partitioned on communal lines and Pakistan declaring itself an Islamic state India has remained democratic and secular because it is pre-dominantly Hindu.
He said he had raised the issue of cross-border terrorism with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf during his visit to Pakistan last year and US President George W Bush during his recent visit to India.
"The impression all over the world that terrorism has abated ever since India and Pakistan commenced a dialogue is not correct. I told both the leaders that we in India would not feel assured till the terrorist infrastructure across the border is not fully dismantled, till the assistance of weapons, communication and finances does not stop. It has not happened so far. There should be no let up in our effort to see that the terrorist infrastructure in that country is dismantled," he said.
Mr Advani warned that the Congress-led Government was playing a dangerous game. "In the present global context, any political party which promotes minorityism for the sake of vote bank is dangerously contributing to religious fundamentalism and thereby causing a grave threat to national unity and security," he said.
He underscored that the BJP had come to occupy a central place in Indian politics because of its "uncompromising stand on minorityism which has been by and large endorsed by the people."
<b>"We had given the country terms like pseudo-secularism and from a strength of two in Parliament, we emerged as the principal ruling party for six years,"</b> the Leader of Opposition said.
"Minorityism as a political gambit can have dangerous consequences and it sometimes becomes anti-national," he said.
<b>He cited the reservations in Andhra Pradesh and Aligarh Muslims University, the backdoor revival of the IMDT that was struck down by the Supreme Court, creation of a separate Ministry for Minorities and Muslim headcount in the armed forces as "minorityism" perpetrated by the UPA Government.</b>
The former deputy prime minister also said the proposed yatras were against the "disruption of national unity and putting national security in jeopardy".
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