05-05-2006, 12:53 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Journey of a lifetime
Pioneer.com
Balbir K Punj |
The immediate fallout of Pramod Mahajan's untimely and tragic death was the cancellation of the two Bharat Suraksha yatras by Mr LK Advani and Mr Rajnath Singh. The situation is made more poignant by the fact that Mr Mahajan was the organiser of Mr Advani's 1990 Ram rath yatra as well, that repositioned the BJP in the firmament of national politics. In 1990, the yatra was aborted in Samastipur, Bihar, for "secular" reasons. This time the cause is shockingly different and more painful. The journey did not culminate in Shivaji Park (Raja Garden) Delhi as planned; instead, tens of thousand of people met tearfully at Shivaji Park Crematorium, Mumbai, where Mahajan's last rites were performed.
I was in Mumbai recently during the Maharastra-lap of the yatra when I had read a headline in a national daily, 'Advani makes the crowd wait in scorching sun'. Its crux was Mr Advani's yatra, hugely welcome at previous stopovers, was running two hours behind schedule. He was feted by a sea of humanity in Gujarat and Maharashtra. But the report wrongly said that Mr Advani was holding a section of people hostage.
If it had been Ms Sonia Gandhi's road show, the same newspaper would have said that the people waiting in scorching sun were her diehard supporters. This is one example of how cynical the national media has been towards Bharat Suraksha yatra. It may have largely ignored the yatris as they trudged on. The same, however, is not true about the regional and vernacular press that provided an objective picture.
I was with Mr Advani in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh segments of the yatra. Wherever it went, it met with huge receptions. Navsari in Gujarat is a small Parsi town. It appeared as if the whole town was out to welcome Mr Advani. It was massive turnout at Chikhali, Valsad, Pardl, Vapi and Bhilad. At places one could see a phalanx of people, in a half-kilometre long chains, standing to welcome the yatra.
The national media first said the yatra was a flop as it began from Rajkot on April 6. But the scale of its reception on first 246 km from Rajkot to Ahmedabad at Aatkot, Jasdan, Vinchiya, Paliyad, Bavia, to name a few places, made the media rethink. They attributed it to Mr Narendra Modi's mobilising skills, and the fact that Gujarat is both BJP bastion and Mr Advani's adopted State.
But as the yatra entered Maharashtra, we were in for a happy surprise. Acchad is a sunbaked place, virtually shorn of greenery. The BJP has little presence there. But tribesmen turned out in large numbers in their traditional attire and musical instruments. Many more such small non-descript towns like Bori, Pandharhavda, Karanji, Wadhi, Wadhera, Hingan Ghat, Jamb and Bubbori are etched in my mind for their sheer response. In Andhra Pradesh, Mr Advani received a rousing reception in Hyderabad, Medchal, Toopran, Ramayampet, Nirmal and Adilabad.
I shall not ascribe this overwhelming reception to his stature in public life alone. In these parts of the country, the people seldom get to see or hear a national leader in person. The arrival of a national leader, irrespective of his party, turns into a festive occasion. The leader also benefits.
The yatra is ridiculed on the ground that the rath is air-conditioned. The rath might be air-conditioned but much of India's roads are bad. Air-condition, quite necessary during a long road journey in April-May, is small consolation if one has to disembark every 20 km in the scorching sun. It is a tough day that begins at 9 am and ends midnight with Mr Advani coming out at least a score of times to address big and small wayside meetings and accepting greetings from thousands, which includes hundreds of BJP activists who are known to him personally. Mr Advani is running 79. I personally attribute his mettle to undertake a yatra to two things; one, his frugal eating habits; and two, an element of divinity in him.
Mr Advani announced 'Ekta yatra' (which was changed to Bharat Suraksha yatra) on the morrow of the serial blasts in Varanasi on March 7. The 'secular' media went hammer and tongs predicting that Mr Advani's yatra will vitiate the communal atmosphere. There is no record of Mr Advani's yatras leading to communal tension anywhere in the country. We have a history of communal tensions that predates even the Jana Sangh.
The truth is that the announcement of the Bharat Suraksha yatra might have been precipitated by the Varanasi bomb blast but not its concept. It is a critical build up of threat to national security since the UPA Government took over in May 2004. It appears resigned to terrorism whether jihadi or Maoist. To pander to Muslim vote-bank it scrapped POTA, which was legislated after a Security Council meet felt that anti-terrorist laws were inadequate to meet global terror. POTA was not only effective in prosecuting terrorists but also in stopping the funding of terrorism. During NDA regime 45/50 ISI sleeper cells were busted every year. The figure has now come down to 15/20.
The charge sheet gets longer. <b>One, reservation for Muslims in jobs and educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh (five per cent) and reservation in post-graduate professional courses in AMU (50 per cent); two, attempt to manipulate the report on religious demography in 2001 Census; three, appointing the Rajinder Sachar Committee which recommended quota for Muslims in the armed forces; four, bringing back IMDT through the backdoor by amending Foreigners Act, 1946 exclusively for Assam; five, exponential growth of Maoism, largely due to Andhra Pradesh under the Congress rescinding ban on the terrorists. </b>
<b>A fortnight before the yatra began, the Kerala Legislative Assembly, where the BJP has no presence, passed a unanimous resolution exhorting the Tamil Nadu Government to release on parole Abdul Nasser Madni, accused of 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blasts. Now the UPA Government is planning for ill-advised de-militarisation of Siachen.</b>
Pramod Mahajan has gone, but his legacy will continue to inspire the BJP. The two yatras might have had to be terminated, but they created a mass awareness. Not surprisingly, Mr Advani has said that the NDA is sure to unseat the UPA if snap poll were to be held.
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BJP should groom Gorakhpur MP for national politics. He can take Mahajan place.
Pioneer.com
Balbir K Punj |
The immediate fallout of Pramod Mahajan's untimely and tragic death was the cancellation of the two Bharat Suraksha yatras by Mr LK Advani and Mr Rajnath Singh. The situation is made more poignant by the fact that Mr Mahajan was the organiser of Mr Advani's 1990 Ram rath yatra as well, that repositioned the BJP in the firmament of national politics. In 1990, the yatra was aborted in Samastipur, Bihar, for "secular" reasons. This time the cause is shockingly different and more painful. The journey did not culminate in Shivaji Park (Raja Garden) Delhi as planned; instead, tens of thousand of people met tearfully at Shivaji Park Crematorium, Mumbai, where Mahajan's last rites were performed.
I was in Mumbai recently during the Maharastra-lap of the yatra when I had read a headline in a national daily, 'Advani makes the crowd wait in scorching sun'. Its crux was Mr Advani's yatra, hugely welcome at previous stopovers, was running two hours behind schedule. He was feted by a sea of humanity in Gujarat and Maharashtra. But the report wrongly said that Mr Advani was holding a section of people hostage.
If it had been Ms Sonia Gandhi's road show, the same newspaper would have said that the people waiting in scorching sun were her diehard supporters. This is one example of how cynical the national media has been towards Bharat Suraksha yatra. It may have largely ignored the yatris as they trudged on. The same, however, is not true about the regional and vernacular press that provided an objective picture.
I was with Mr Advani in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh segments of the yatra. Wherever it went, it met with huge receptions. Navsari in Gujarat is a small Parsi town. It appeared as if the whole town was out to welcome Mr Advani. It was massive turnout at Chikhali, Valsad, Pardl, Vapi and Bhilad. At places one could see a phalanx of people, in a half-kilometre long chains, standing to welcome the yatra.
The national media first said the yatra was a flop as it began from Rajkot on April 6. But the scale of its reception on first 246 km from Rajkot to Ahmedabad at Aatkot, Jasdan, Vinchiya, Paliyad, Bavia, to name a few places, made the media rethink. They attributed it to Mr Narendra Modi's mobilising skills, and the fact that Gujarat is both BJP bastion and Mr Advani's adopted State.
But as the yatra entered Maharashtra, we were in for a happy surprise. Acchad is a sunbaked place, virtually shorn of greenery. The BJP has little presence there. But tribesmen turned out in large numbers in their traditional attire and musical instruments. Many more such small non-descript towns like Bori, Pandharhavda, Karanji, Wadhi, Wadhera, Hingan Ghat, Jamb and Bubbori are etched in my mind for their sheer response. In Andhra Pradesh, Mr Advani received a rousing reception in Hyderabad, Medchal, Toopran, Ramayampet, Nirmal and Adilabad.
I shall not ascribe this overwhelming reception to his stature in public life alone. In these parts of the country, the people seldom get to see or hear a national leader in person. The arrival of a national leader, irrespective of his party, turns into a festive occasion. The leader also benefits.
The yatra is ridiculed on the ground that the rath is air-conditioned. The rath might be air-conditioned but much of India's roads are bad. Air-condition, quite necessary during a long road journey in April-May, is small consolation if one has to disembark every 20 km in the scorching sun. It is a tough day that begins at 9 am and ends midnight with Mr Advani coming out at least a score of times to address big and small wayside meetings and accepting greetings from thousands, which includes hundreds of BJP activists who are known to him personally. Mr Advani is running 79. I personally attribute his mettle to undertake a yatra to two things; one, his frugal eating habits; and two, an element of divinity in him.
Mr Advani announced 'Ekta yatra' (which was changed to Bharat Suraksha yatra) on the morrow of the serial blasts in Varanasi on March 7. The 'secular' media went hammer and tongs predicting that Mr Advani's yatra will vitiate the communal atmosphere. There is no record of Mr Advani's yatras leading to communal tension anywhere in the country. We have a history of communal tensions that predates even the Jana Sangh.
The truth is that the announcement of the Bharat Suraksha yatra might have been precipitated by the Varanasi bomb blast but not its concept. It is a critical build up of threat to national security since the UPA Government took over in May 2004. It appears resigned to terrorism whether jihadi or Maoist. To pander to Muslim vote-bank it scrapped POTA, which was legislated after a Security Council meet felt that anti-terrorist laws were inadequate to meet global terror. POTA was not only effective in prosecuting terrorists but also in stopping the funding of terrorism. During NDA regime 45/50 ISI sleeper cells were busted every year. The figure has now come down to 15/20.
The charge sheet gets longer. <b>One, reservation for Muslims in jobs and educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh (five per cent) and reservation in post-graduate professional courses in AMU (50 per cent); two, attempt to manipulate the report on religious demography in 2001 Census; three, appointing the Rajinder Sachar Committee which recommended quota for Muslims in the armed forces; four, bringing back IMDT through the backdoor by amending Foreigners Act, 1946 exclusively for Assam; five, exponential growth of Maoism, largely due to Andhra Pradesh under the Congress rescinding ban on the terrorists. </b>
<b>A fortnight before the yatra began, the Kerala Legislative Assembly, where the BJP has no presence, passed a unanimous resolution exhorting the Tamil Nadu Government to release on parole Abdul Nasser Madni, accused of 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blasts. Now the UPA Government is planning for ill-advised de-militarisation of Siachen.</b>
Pramod Mahajan has gone, but his legacy will continue to inspire the BJP. The two yatras might have had to be terminated, but they created a mass awareness. Not surprisingly, Mr Advani has said that the NDA is sure to unseat the UPA if snap poll were to be held.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
BJP should groom Gorakhpur MP for national politics. He can take Mahajan place.