BJP Future - 4

[Guest]

http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/30fli...&file=.htm

<b>Karnataka's lessons for the Congress</b>

[ramana]

Praful Goradia in Pioneer, 1 Feb., 2006

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Hindutva in search of a hero </b>

<b>Time is opportune time for the BJP to redefine itself and emerge out of its ideological dilemma, </b>says Prafull Goradia

As never before, a conglomeration of factors has gathered to favour the advent of a Hindu party to the fore. Will BJP president Rajnath Singh sense the opportunity and lead Hindu nationalism to power? <b>In the 2004 general election</b>, the Congress did not win: 145 seats out of 543 was no victory. It was <b>the BJP that lost by dropping from 183 seats to 138.</b> The Congress is plagued with a series of mega scandals, beginning with the Mitrokhin papers that exposed the bribes given by the Soviet KGB to the Congress and its allies.

Hardly had the din of the Soviet mischief died down when the Volcker report burst upon the Congress and then Foreign Minister Natwar Singh. Thereafter came the public exposure of the UPA's favour to Quattrocchi: The ill-gotten Bofors commission was allowed to be withdrawn from his London bank accounts. Then there were reports of the Attorney General having obliged Adani Exports with an opinion that helped to give crores of rupees worth incentives to the company, despite the reservations of the Finance Ministry.

In November, Bihar rejected Mr Lalu Prasad Prasad. The rejection of the Congress by the Bihar voters was once again confirmed: The party dropped from 10 to nine MLAs. Karnataka had not given this grand old party anything like a mandate in the last Assembly election; and yet, Mr Dharam Singh became Chief Minister. That undeserved power in Bangalore has also been lost and the BJP, as in Patna, has gained. All indications are that UP, too, does not favour the Congress. The situation for the party does not differ much from that in Bihar. <b>Fundamentally, the Nehruvian vote-bank of Adivasi-Harijan-Muslim has long been lost, as demonstrated by most of the elections since 1989.</b>

The Congress, which, until Rajiv Gandhi, was the people's first choice, has become the party of last resort. Concomitantly, the era of socialism and sham secularism passed. And the national party called upon by the people to fill the vacuum was the BJP. <b>Unfortunately, its compromise over ideology in order to placate its coalition partners in the NDA made its core constituency feel let down by election time in May 2004. </b>

The BJP leaders had, in effect, neglected Hindutva. They had put Articles 370 and 44 and the Ayodhya issue on the backburner. Little did they realise that the Articles belong to the Constitution, which has been in force since January 1950. The climax of Ayodhya had been reached in December 1992. How could the issue be so crucial from 1998 to 2004? The same NDA parties had not objected to the presence of the Shiv Sena, which claimed credit for demolishing the Babri edifice, in the coalition. Nor did any party pull out of the NDA over the continuance of Mr Narendra Modi after the post-Godhra violence.

The moral of the experience was that playing to the Muslim gallery, even for the sake of the NDA, would be useless. What is necessary is to imbibe Hindutva properly, pursue it fearlessly and make the Hindu heart tick. There cannot be less than 30 per cent of the electorate, which will lap up a Hindu manifesto. Who would have believed as late as 2001 that Gujarat could go the way it did and stay there for years? None before Mr Narendra Modi made the Hindu heart throb and tried to discover how much it was prepared to love. What Gujarat feels today, India can feel tomorrow.

<b>The essence of Hindutva is the integrity of India. It was Krishna who showed the way centuries ago when, based in Dwarakapuri, he headed a confederation of five Yadava republics called Andhaka Vrismi league. Although the confederation did not expand, his dream of Indian unity came true. Where in the country is he not revered? From Kamrup to Kutch in the west, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in the south, Krishna is a vibrant legend. To come down to the 20th century, Babasaheb Ambedkar chose Buddhism. He did not consider any other faith. If he turned either Muslim or Christian, he declared, he would denationalise himself and his followers. He thought that such religions inspired extra-territorial loyalties.</b>

<b>Islamic radicals,</b> as President George Bush calls them, or jihadis, as we describe them, are spreading to every nook and corner of the country. Their mission is to tear India asunder, whether by attacking Parliament or infiltrating into Assam and West Bengal. It is not being merely a national struggle. <b>It is a world war. It is being fought across five continents - from Australia in the South-East to the US in the North-West.</b>

Only South America is free from an incident. <b>The global war is being fought by five civilisations against Islam led by its radicals: China in Xinjiang, Thailand in Pathani, Hindus in India, Jews in Palestine, Christians in Russia, Kosovo, France, Spain, the US, etc. This war is more truly a global conflagration than any of the previous three. World War I was virtually confined to Europe. World War II, too, was largely Euro-centric except for the Japanese exploits in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. The third was between the US and the Soviet Union.</b>

History is on the side of Hindutva. But opportunity alone does not make destiny. In Napoleon Bonaparte's words, destiny is catching luck while it is flying. Hindutva is in search of a hero. Will it find one?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

He has a sense of 'force of history' and analysis of events than most.

[acharya]

Made in Jhandewalan
<b>
When Lal Krishna Advani doffed his hat to Mohammad Ali Jinnah's August 1947 vision, he was acknowledging the `thus-far-and-no-further' nature of Hindutva. For all its emotive value and vote-gathering potential, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 's disruptive doctrine proved a barrier to power. It is certainly ironic that the Bharatiya Janata Party has returned to conventional Hindutva at a juncture when the ideology's lifelong champion has repeatedly recorded his serious caveats. </b>The strong imprint of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Rajnath Singh's new team has dispelled the lingering doubts about where the principal Opposition party is headed under Mr. Advani's successor. If the first thing Mr. Singh did on taking charge was to reconnect with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, he has since embraced such notables as Vinay Katiyar and Narendra Modi. The Bajrang Dal chief has made it to the squad as a general secretary while the Gujarat Chief Minister has been honoured with membership of the BJP's highest decision-making bodies — the Central Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee. That both men have a taste for communal disharmony is to understate their political beliefs and practice by several orders of magnitude. Mr. Singh owes his job to the wise men in Jhandewalan; and in politics, as elsewhere, there is such a thing as payback time. The interesting question is: how far will Mr. Singh travel on this route? Sudharshan & Co. are unlikely to give him anything like a long leash.
<b>
The BJP's helmsman is in an unenviable position. On the one hand, his party finds its clout with allies diminished in the aftermath of its May 2004 defeat. As long as the National Democratic Alliance ruled at the Centre, the BJP got away with upping the Hindutva ante. </b>Allies such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party, perhaps sensing what was coming, baled out before the NDA regime's time was up. Today without the glue of power, Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, and Mamata Banerjee are under no compulsion to support a saffron-tinted BJP. On the other hand, the advent of Uma Bharti as `the real BJP' obliges Mr. Singh to do more to prove his Hindutva credentials. Ms. Bharti has made plain her intention to start a new party centred on the `core values' that, in her view, the BJP lost under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr. Advani. For the party, the Uma factor is an additional complication in the tough battle for Uttar Pradesh. At this point, the party's once-favourite hunting ground looks polarised between two interesting socio-political formations, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Mr. Rajnath Singh's answer to the challenge appears to be Kalyan Singh, who, like Ms. Bharti, embodies the twin appeal of Mandir and Mandal. Mr. Kalyan Singh, however, does not seem to reciprocate the warm feelings of the new BJP chief. Moreover, the last election showed him to be hardly a match-winner.

[Guest]

:<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Geneva'>clapping

Saffron spread


BJP has used its UP strategies to rise in Karnataka. Will it be different now?


PAMELA PHILIPOSE


Posted online: Friday, February 03, 2006 at 0000 hours IST



Politics in Karnataka could be the script for a fine Yakshagana performance. The angst of a wronged father confronting a wayward son who threatens to squander a carefully constructed political legacy, has mythological resonances that will long echo through the capacious corridors of Bangalore’s Vidhana Soudha. H.D. Deve Gowda knows well the price the Janata Dal — which flags the word ‘secular’ as part of its nomenclature — will have to pay for son H.D. Kumaraswamy’s pact with the BJP. He sees it for what it is: political suicide.

The BJP’s ascent to governance in Karnataka — if things go according to plan — will see the emergence of a bipolar polity in the state. It will also mean an end to the Janata Dal, as we know it, 12 short years after its big moment when various factions led by strongmen H.D. Deve Gowda, S.R. Bommai and R.K. Hedge fought elections together and gave the state its first Janata Dal government. For the BJP, breaking the south-of-the-Vindhyas barrier will come as a major psychological boost — the culmination of 16 years of concerted labour.
While covering the 1991 General Election in the state, I could distinctly discern the saffron tint in the air. The Congress, which until then had enjoyed unchallenged suzerainty in the state, had trouble even generated by Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. I remember speaking at that point to the erstwhile maharaja of Mysore, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, who had deserted the Congress for the BJP. He believed that time was on the BJP’s side: “The youth are the moving force today, and they are supportive of the Hindutva cause. The Rajmata may have invited me to join the party, but I am convinced about the BJP’s politics. I am a practicing Hindu and the Congress Party’s policy of minority appeasement was too much.” He subsequently found it more advantageous to return to the Congress, but there was no denying the political frisson he had referred to. That election saw the BJP emerge with four seats in Karnataka — a first in the south — and, more significantly, 29 per cent of the votes. In ’89, it could secure only 2.6 per cent of votes!

How did this happen in a state that had witnessed the Congress’s one-party dominance ever since its birth? The cynical and corrupt politics of the Congress certainly helped, but without doubt Karnataka was the most receptive among the four southern states to the passions unleashed by the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The Sangh Parivar’s Rama Jyothi processions introduced a new dynamic into local politics as a string of riots, in towns like Ramnagaram, Channapatna, Kolar, Devangere, erupted in September-October ’90. In Mangalore, Congress’s Janardhana Poojary who won election after election by cleverly posing as the ‘Poojary of the poor’, bit the dust in that election. The BJP’s V. Dhananjaya Kumar, buttressed by vocal support from local temple trusts and pilgrim centres, like the influential Pejavar Mutt and the Shree Kshetra Dharmasthal, defeated him by 35,000 votes.

Over the next decade the BJP consolidated its hold in three pockets of the state: the coastal belt, the Bombay-Karnataka and the Hyderabad-Karnataka regions. There is a popular misconception that the BJP’s politics in the south is markedly different to its north Indian variant. The fact is that the party’s political strategy — the “exclusion-inclusion” paradigm — was essentially the same in Karnataka, as in UP. It played the Hindu card and deepened communal divides in the state, while working for a homogeneous Hindutva identity by melding together disparate caste groups.

To help in polarising the state along communal lines, the Karnataka BJP threw itself into the Idgah Maidan campaign in Hubli, with some help from national leaders. In 1992, during Murli Manohar Joshi’s Ekta Yatra, local party workers attempted to hoist the flag in the Maidan to contest the ownership rights of the Anjuman-e-Islam. The party persisted with the campaign for the next two years, through episodes of rioting and deaths in police firing. Even after the Anjuman-e-Islam authorities defused the issue by themselves deciding to hoist the national flag, the Sangh Parivar continued to target the Idgah Maidan, making Hubli something of a communal hotspot. Its exertions saw a rise in local profile. By 2002, a party that had no presence in the Hubli corporation ten years earlier, had come to occupy 40 per cent of its seats. The conscious search for an Ayodhya-like flashpoint, also saw the Sangh Parivar home in on the Guru Dattatreya Baba Budangiri Swamy dargah, near Chikmagalur. In December 2003, the VHP-Bajrang Dal attempted to “liberate” the dargah with notables like Pravin Togadia and Sadhvi Ritambara providing the required soundbites. The state BJP participated in this campaign with great enthusiasm.

If “exclusion” required the services of the stormtroopers, “inclusion” demanded intense community networking. It was along the coastal belt that attempts to construct a homogeneous Hindutva identity proved most successful. Two factors worked in its favour there. The first was the presence of a disciplined RSS cadre. Ram Madhav, RSS spokesperson, is on record for having noted that the Dakshina Kannada district had become one of the strongholds of the RSS because in at least 300 places shakas have been running at least two programmes each. These included civic interventions like promoting village cleanliness, temple maintenance, water purification, the creation of self-help and knowledge dissemination groups. The powerful mutts and temples that dot the Mangalore-Udipi region were sites of community bonding around festivals, bhajan sessions, and locally convened Hindu Samajosavas. In these activities, the lower castes — which in an earlier era had been kept at a distance — were consciously wooed. Such activities and institutions worked as force multipliers for the BJP. At the political level the party kept itself open to anyone willing to do business with it. If Ramakrishna Hegde had helped it consolidate the Brahmin-Lingayat vote, winning over S. Bangarappa (albeit for a short spell), broadened its appeal among the Idigas.

This strategy of inclusion-exclusion has paid the party rich dividends in Karnataka, where surveys indicate that the party now enjoys considerable support from SC/STs and OBCs in the state. The BJP’s biggest problem so far had been its inability to make that final leap to power and thus keep its restive flock intact. Kumaraswamy may have just solved that dilemma — for the time being, at least.</span></span>

[Guest]

http://www.samachar.com/features/030206-features.html

Is BJP’s future as bleak as it seems?
By M.V. Kamath

[Guest]

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Geneva'> <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo--> BJP guns for election commissioner Naveen Chawla
Source: IANS.


New Delhi, February 6: The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday demanded a member of the Election Commission should step down following a TV expose that trusts run by him and his family had received donations from MPs of the ruling Congress.

The Times Now channel had reported on Monday that Congress MPs had diverted money from their funds to develop their constituencies to trusts run by Naveen Chawla - who was appointed election commissioner May 15, 2005 - and his family.

"It's a question of retaining the Election Commission's autonomy. Election commissioners have to be impartial, independent and politically detached," BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley told reporters.

"Can this be said of Chawla after his trusts received money from Congress MPs? The answer is no.

"An election commissioner is both a political umpire and an ombudsman. Chawla has proved his lack of political detachment and this is a matter of concern because the credibility of the Election Commission gets eroded," Jaitley said.

"It is for Chawla to honestly introspect whether this lack of political detachment makes it appropriate for him to continue. If he decides to stay, then the Chief Election Commissioner should recommend to the president he be removed.
"If that too doesn't happen we will agitate for this," Jaitley said in what he termed the BJP's "measured response" to the episode.

According to Jaitley, the BJP was not focusing on whether or not it was correct to give money to private trusts or how it was spent, but on the need for the Election Commission to "assert its impartiality" by getting rid of Chawla.

Jaitley also highlighted the "well-known connections" of Chawla with the Nehru-Gandhi family that has been in power for 50 of the 59 years India has been an independent country.

In this context, he pointed out that a probe into demolitions in the Muslim-dominated Turkman Gate area of Delhi during the Emergency of 1975-1977 had been overseen by Chawla at the behest of then prime minister Indira Gandhi's younger son Sanjay Gandhi</span></span>

[Guest]

<b>Now Uma wants to work for BJP</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Bharati said she would set up a forum of “like-minded” people who, would keep a close watch on the BJP leaders “who deviate from the Hindutva ideology...”

<b>“After giving substantial thought to the recent events in the BJP, I have reached at the conclusion that there is no room for revenge in my life. All I need to do is to make the BJP follow the right path,”</b> she said while starting her 90-day Janadesh Yatra from Vindhyachal in Mirzapur district.
 
<b>“Now I have realised that the BSP, Samajwadi Party and the Congress were waiting for a split within the BJP</b>. I know that there is enough possibility of an exodus from BJP due to misdirected policies and statements of Advani and Rajnath. But I’ll never let that happen to a party I have nourished all my life,” she said.

“I can assure people that the party will get a new lease of life. You have given me time to streamline things. I request you to bear with me for 90 more days, as I will announce my next step in Chitrakoot at the end of my yatra. But please don’t think about leaving the BJP,” she said.

She added, <b>“I call upon my disillusioned colleagues to trust me and wait and watch how I bring back the party to power in Uttar Pradesh in the Vidhan Sabha election early next year.” </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Finally, tubelight start blinking.

[acharya]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Gateway to South opened for BJP: Venkaiah Naidu</b>
Special Correspondent
Says like the Cauvery, BJP too will flow from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu "The Congress party is steadily losing friends"

# He says in the past, the BJP was branded as a north Indian party
# Congress is losing friends, he adds

CHENNAI: The gateway to the South has been opened for the Bharatiya Janata Party with the party coming to power in Karnataka, senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday.

"The Cauvery flows from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu. The BJP too will flow from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu," Mr Naidu told a public meeting at Mudichur, about 30 km from Chennai, to launch the programme of "Makkal Darisanam" (meet the people) to be undertaken by the party vice-president L. Ganesan, in northern parts of the State in the next one month. In the past, the BJP was branded as a "north-Indian" party, he added.

Comeback trail

Asserting that the party was on the comeback trail, Mr. Naidu said that in the last one year, the party had retained power in Jharkhand and formed a government along with the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar. But "the Congress party is losing friends," with several of its allies expressing their dissatisfaction over the functioning of the Government.

The BJP leader reiterated that people of Tamil Nadu were tired of politics of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. So, the BJP wanted to provide an alternative and decided to contest in all the constituencies.

No big deal

Referring to a slew of sops announced by the AIADMK Government, Mr. Ganesan said it was no big deal as the proceeds of taxes collected from the public were sought to be spent for such schemes.

Just as the DMK had demanded in the past that an all-party committee monitor flood-relief works, the BJP wanted such an option for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP national secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu, said that one of the objectives of the `Makkal Darisanam' programme was to expose misrepresentation of the Dravidian culture by the DMK and the AIADMK.

"Not alien culture"

"The Dravidian culture is not alien culture. It is part of Indian culture," Mr. Dattatreya said.

J. Ramachandran and V. Vaidyalingam, vice-presidents of the State unit, and V.R. Sivaraman, chief of north Kancheepuram unit of the party, took part in the meeting.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>The reborn BJP casts its shadow on PM!</b>

By P. Raman

How quickly has the political dynamics undergone a shift in the Capital’s corridors of power. The signals have been sharp and clear, yet few among us have even noticed the change which will have stunning consequences on the Manmohan Singh establishment’s ability to push ahead with its controversial initiatives.

The PMO was quick to sense the troubles and so some old guard at 10 Janpath with sharp political antenna while the rest of the political class spent the time on tapping and CDs.

For a year and half, the Left held the balance of power in Delhi. However, despite the love-hate relationship, the PM has learnt to live with the Left. Now even before settling down in his chair and constituting his new team, BJP president Rajnath Singh has caused deep worries for the PMO. It is now hurriedly reworking some of its policies, some with serious foreign policy spin-off.

<b>For, all its calculations will go haywire if a BJP recast on the pre- 1996 Parivar agenda of cultural nationalism, swadeshi (or economic nationalism) and Hindutva emerges on the political scene. </b>

Each move by the reborn BJP after L.K. Advani’s exit does indicate this distinct possibility. Such a posture will force the Manmohan Singh government drop many of the policies on which he has been waging a bitter cold war with the Left.

Fear of a confluence, not functionally, of ideas on the reform and foreign policy initiatives between the two extremes on the opposite polar is very much real for the Manmohan Singh Government.

Watch the alacrity with which the new BJP chief acted to reassert the original RSS agenda. The party came out with a scathing attack on the prime minister for his `midnight betrayal’ on the issue of voting at IAEA on Iran without taking the nation into confidence.

On January 6, the new BJP damned the government for offering to permit individual US Congressmen have the details of separation of India’s nuclear and civilian use facilities. Instead, the PM should have first taken the people of India into confidence on the details.

The next day, party spokesman attacked the government for cutting back food subsidies for the poor. It, the party said, was the `beginning of the end of the dismantling of the public distribution system.’ Then came the condemnation of the government’s failure to announce increase in minimum support prices for wheat.

On nuclear agreement with the US, the new leadership encouraged Yashwant Sinha who had serious policy differences with the Advani-controlled BJP, to go ahead with another attack.<b> “Nothing should be done that will jeopardize India’s position as a nuclear power,” Sinha said echoing the known RSS position on the issue.
</b>
If the new BJP persists with such a strident line, it will drastically change the power dynamics at the Centre. <b>The PMO’s concern over the likely political backlash of an RSS campaign on the nuclear accord at home is too obvious. And that is precisely what is happening after the Rajnath Singh takeover. </b>

Chidambaram’s bravado apart, the PMO was quick to put on hold the hike in PDS food grains prices. The moment the second largest party backs a Left demand, it will have a steamroller effect. Hence the DMK, JD(U) and even the PM’s own party fell in line.

The RSS-controlled BMS is no more hamstrung by the old NDA syndrome, and has begun publicly sitting with other Left TUs. It even formally signed the strike call by the other unions for January 20. <b>The Left is not very happy to be seen with a communal outfit. But they did so after accounting for the snowballing political advantages of such actions. </b>  <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

How long can we pretend to be unaware of such strong political signals that came in such a short time? <b>Let there be no doubt that the new BJP under the RSS control will be different from its expediency-centred previous incarnation. </b>

The new BJP is set to play agitational politics to educate the ranks and keep them active. BJP leaders persistently sidelined by the Advani durbar wishfully refer to the `new enthusiasm’ among the ranks about turning it into a livewire organization.

All these years, they were disallowed to assail the government policies that affected those among whom they live and work. So the party’s demands on the food subsidy, PF rates and surrendering the `nuclear pride’ to foreigners have all provided them with a whiff of fresh air.

<b>Continuous hard work at the ground level, rather than last minute helicopter-borne poll campaign by a few bright leaders, alone can mobilize people round the BJP. This is the new line. </b>

As of now, the PM side is heavily banking on two possible lifesavers the continued invisible cooperation to the government from L.K. Advani as opposition leader and the morality crisis gripping the RSS establishment.

The ongoing CD scandals involving parivar stalwarts have certainly delayed the process of structural and policy reform in BJP. But it is too early to predict what shape this will take.

However, the clash of interests between the Advani camp and the new BJP does provide some solace to the PM. The BJP parliamentary party in both houses is totally controlled by Advani and his proteges.

Can the BJP and RSS effectively impose their new pro-active policies on him? It may take a few more weeks to know the exact position. Even after the 2004 rout, Advani has been avoiding straight criticism of the UPA’s economic and foreign postures.

Hence it has been concentrating on side issues like the tainted ministers, governors’ actions, etc bypassing the PM’s policy decisions affecting the people.

In RSS circles it is alleged that Advani has an understanding with the business and foreign lobbies to lent silent consent to the PM’s policies. This was perhaps what had made Meghnad Desai to lament this week about the collapse of a ten-year ‘grand coalition’ of the two major parties.

The new BJP has no such baggage. The cleavages are already visible on a number of issues. On Wednesday Rajnath Singh had hinted at the BJP attending the speaker’s meeting on Parliament’s rights. But same day after a meeting at Vajpayee’s residence, V.K. Malhotra described the speaker’s move `inappropriate’.

While the party chief wants firm action on the MPs caught on camera, the Advani side had resented the Parliament decision. These are not healthy signs of a party struggling to reinvent itself.

More crucial, will the RSS be able to bring the powerful parliamentary wing down to its own post-Mumbai agenda? On this will depend the real thickness of the BJP shadow over PM.

http://www.samachar.com/features/040206-features.html

Send in your comments on this article to samachar_editor@sify.com <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->VHP to create Hindu vote bank
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.zeenews.com
Puri, Feb 19: The VHP today said that it intended to create a 'Hindu vote bank' to enable political parties willing to implement its 13-point charter of demands to win elections.

"The Hindu vote bank will help political parties and independent candidates win elections. It will also work against political parties which indulge in Muslim appeasement and ensure their defeat," VHP international general secretary Praveen Togadia told reporters here on the sidelines of the 11th 'Dharma Samsad' meet.

Elaborating on the VHP's strategy to create a "vote bank", he said that the organization had targetted to unite 15 crore Hindu voters in the country.

The 13-point demands, approved by the 'Dharma Samsad', include declaration of India as Hindu country, promise to restore undivided India, formulation of a Central Law to check cow slaughter, control of Madrasas and abolition of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

<b>Criticising the BJP for "not delivering" on the VHP agenda in the past, Togadia said, "we had whole-heartedly supported BJP in the past. The party took us for granted and deviated from the ideology</b>."

<b>The strategy would be to build 10,000 voters' in each assembly segment and a minimum 40,000 in a parliamentary constituency. </b>

The VHP adopted five resolutions on the concluding day of the 'Dharma Samsad' including the Hindu vote bank, formulation of a Central Law to ban cow slaughter, protect sanctity of Ganga water, stringent laws against militants who carried out attacks on Ram temple and other Hindu religious places and declaration of Geeta as the national book of India.

VHP to isolate Bangladeshi infiltrators financially

The VHP will soon kickstart a campaign to isolate Bangladeshi infiltrators financially in order to discourage their presence in India.

<b>"We will start a nationwide campaign - Bangladeshi Muslim Ghuspethion Ko Arthik Bahiskar Karo - or isolate Bangladeshi infiltrators financially. We will start the movement from West Bengal,"</b> VHP international general secretary Praveen Bhai Togadia told reporters here on the sidelines of the 11th Dharma Sansad meet.

<b>A group of 300 Sadhus from West Bengal got together in a separate meeting to chalk out a detailed strategy to carry out the campaign, </b>Togadia said.

<b>"No job, no shelter and no food for the Bangladeshis were three major slogans of the VHP during the campaign," </b>Togadia said, adding that the campaign would be taken up in Orissa, Jharkhand and Assam in the second stage.

Togadia said that the Sants and Sadhus had given their consent to lead the campaign to achieve the objective of financially isolating the infiltrators.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[acharya]

'UPA held together by BJP phobia'



February 20, 2006 19:06 IST

Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh said on Monday that the United Progressive Alliance government was the strangest kind of coalition the country has ever had. All its members are running in different directions, 'but are somehow held together by BJP-phobia', Singh said.

"Yeh milijuli sarkar nahin hai, balki milibhagat ki sarkar hai (<span style='color:red'>it is not a coalition government but a government of conspiracy)," he said, speaking in the Rajya Sabha.

The UPA has changed the definition of coalition government and strangest behaviour was that of the Left, he said.

"There were no permanent allies and enemies in politics but the left leaders had disproved this by behaving as both permanent friends and enemies of the government," Singh said.

Their opposition or support to the government was not based on any principles but on the fear of the BJP coming back to power. "The ruling alliance is being driven forward by BJP phobia," he added.


</span>

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Where Vajpayee stands today
By Kuldip Nayar, Special to Gulf News

I would have been in the Communist Party if there had been no partition," says Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Indian prime minister who led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition for six years at the Centre. "I was a member of the Students' Federation which had leftist leanings. The communists' support to the demand for partition disillusioned me and I parted company with them."

Vajpayee believes the Congress and the BJP would have come together if Mahatma Gandhi had not been assassinated. He thinks that it would have been "best for the country" to sort out certain basic problems. "The Congress is so hostile to us these days that it believes we are out to destroy the country."

When the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was in power, Vajpayee says, they had good relations with the Congress. It opposed them but considered them desh bakht (patriots). "If I were to compare them with us, we were more circumspect and responsive in our attitude towards them than they are towards us." Vajpayee does not blame Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but puts the onus on Congress president Sonia Gandhi, without naming her. He praises Manmohan but wonders how much power he has. Vajpayee is unhappy to find "all types of people becoming ministers". To his particular dislike are those who were associated with the emergency and its excesses.

Vajpayee has no faith in the emergence of the third front. Even if it does, he has a poor opinion about some of those heading regional parties.

About his own party, he says that "young lack in idealism and are in a hurry to get positions." But then he adds: "Come to think of it, this is true of nearly all political parties. The youth is not willing to wait. Nor does it want to go through the fire of idealism."

My purpose in meeting Vajpayee was to assess the person who represented an era that came to an end with his retirement from active politics. I found him still in harness, although he acts more like a fatherly figure. He postponed the meeting with me twice because the BJP leadership met at his home once to discuss the state-funding in elections and the second time to formulate views on Iran.

Government confused

On Iran, Vajpayee is not categorical. He welcomes good relations with the US but avoids any direct comments on Iran. In reply to my query whether the government is pursuing the right policy, Vajpayee replies: "The government does not know what to do. It is confused."

Elucidating his remarks, he says that there are three parties involved in processing a concerted response: Sonia, Manmohan and the Left. Who will prevail when and where is not clear. But he avows faith in the foreign policy that Jawaharlal Nehru had formulated. His faith is basically in non-alignment. He claims himself to be a Nehruvite.

After he was sworn in as foreign minister in the Janata government in 1977, he told me how he felt privileged to sit in the chair that Nehru had occupied once. He still has his picture at his residence. On Pakistan, he is not happy with what New Delhi is doing. He favours progress but doesn't suggest anything concrete. Yet he has no doubt that there would have been "an advance" if he had been the Prime Minister. When I drew his attention to Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's contention that he had intervened to include Kashmir in the joint statement at Lahore, Vajpayee says, "we wanted to keep Kashmir separate".

My whole exercise for an hour was to find out where Vajpayee stood. Was he a liberal, the impression he tried to create despite being a swayam sevak (volunteer) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers' Organisation) an extremist Hindu organisation which has now given the call of "Indianising" Muslims and Christians because, as RSS chief Sudharshan, says, "we cannot throw them into the sea".

I found Vajpayee as reticent as he had always been when it came to the criticism of the RSS. Vajpayee is not happy over Sudharshan's remark. But he seldom minces words when it comes to the RSS chief. Vajpayee does not want to be drawn into the issue. But he does not deny the stress and strain between the BJP and the RSS. "Not much," he says. He recalls a long discussion on Hindutva once. What it meant and why it could not be Bhartiya (Indianess)? "They have no answer. Some of them are frozen in old concepts, conveying little," he says.

When it came to the demolition of the Babri masjid, Vajpayee says that the whole thing happened quickly and suddenly. "I did not know anything about it. If they had a prior plan, they did not tell me," says Vajpayee. "Morarji [Desai] was right that the crowd should not have been allowed to assemble." Vajpayee leaves me in no doubt that he was sorry about the demolition. (I recall meeting him one day after the demolition. He told me then that the temple should be allowed to be built.) He makes it clear that people wanted the temple to come up but did not want the mosque to go down. We both recall the time when the locks were opened with political gains in view. There was no such need.

At least you, as prime minister, should have done something about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He planned the killing. This was my allegation. "There is no evidence," says Vajpayee.

We discuss Gujarat at length. He does not defend Modi and, at times, gives the impression that he should have done something to upbraid Modi. But Vajpayee wishes that the incident at Godhara the burning of a railway compartment with some passengers had not taken place. Vajpayee may have an explanation why he could not dismiss the Modi government. But posterity will find him wanting on this count.

Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP.

http://archive.gulfnews.com/opinion/column...d/10019544.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No wonder Goel called this guy a windbag.

[Guest]

Don't trust Kuldip Nayar, always twist facts. He is one of the biggest liar on earth. He is also known as Kulbrasht. He is more Paki than Pakistan citizen. Married to a daughter of ex CM of Punjab. Always throw garbadge.

This idiot is known for candle-light vigil at the Wagah checkpost.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Not so long ago, the Indian High Commissioner in UK (Kuldip Nayyar) could not help commenting to his Pakistani counterpart (Shehryar Khan) that while he (Nayyar) was a ‘Pakistani’ now representing India, the latter was an ‘Indian’ now officiating for Pakistan</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Bharatvarsh]

Its not just about trusting Kuldip, we have corroborating testimony from Goel and Vajpayee's actions (remember Lahore Bus yatra) so there is no doubt about the fact that he is a closet Nehruvian, those who think BJP will do anything for Hindus are in for a sure kick in the ass.

[Guest]

<!--emo&:argue--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/argue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='argue.gif' /><!--endemo--> Here, it’s BJP-Congress vs Naxalites


Chhattisgarh CM backs Cong leader’s campaign to win over tribals


VIVEK DESHPANDE


Posted online: Monday, February 27, 2006 at 0210 hours IST
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SOUTH BASTAR (CHHATTISGARH), FEBRUARY 26: In the last six months, scores have been killed in the war between Naxalites and the government-backed tribal army, Salva Judum, in South Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. But it never made it to national headlines or political debates because of an unusual cooperation in the state between the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress.

Chief Minister Raman Singh and Leader of the Opposition Mahendra Karma have joined hands to beat the Naxals at their own game—winning over the tribals, by any means.



It was Karma who first threw his weight behind the movement. He took the fight to the Naxal camp by leading a march of thousands of tribals in the Naxal heartland last September. Having lost four of his family members including cousin Podiyaram Karma, a Janpad president of Takilod village near Bhairamgarh, in Naxal violence, Karma had twice earlier organised public awareness campaigns against Left extremism. Naxalites, however, allege Salva Judum is the handiwork of a few tribal feudal lords of whom Karma is one. Says Karma: “Naxalites have destroyed the traditional socio-cultural, economic and administrative set-up to create a parallel administration. Superior tribal leaders were browbeaten, resulting in total collapse of the resource centers. It has led to a lot of frustration among the tribals. We are only channelising that frustration.”

Some Congress leaders from the region say Karma has nothing to lose if the campaign fails, but will become a hero if it succeeds. “I am a public figure. I can take up any cause anywhere. And then there is no problem in my area,” Karma says. CM Raman Singh, for whom it’s a big political gamble to allow the Congress leader to walk away with the credit for the movement if it succeeds, says Karma is doing a good job. For Singh, it was a call that needed to be answered. “As CM, it was my duty to provide security to those who had raised a banner of revolt against the Naxalites in June. Those without arms cannot fight RDX and AK-47. Don’t mistake it as a political agitation. It’s a spontaneous uprising by those who are tired of the backwardness, poverty and destruction of the region’s economy during the last 25 years of insurgency by Naxalites,” says Singh. Both the CM and Opposition leader agree on the need to deliver special developmental plans for the Naxal-affected region. “We are connecting Salva Judum to a Rs 1,000-crore employment package currently under planning stage,” Raman Singh says.

“Building roads, schools and reaching medical facilities far and wide will also be our priority,” he adds. The Centre doesn’t want to be seen as being inert. “We support Salva Judum,” Union Minister of State for Home Shriprakash Jaiswal told mediapersons during a recent visit. “We have provided the state with required security forces,” he added. There are some dissenting voices within the political mainstream though. Says Bijapur tribal Congress MLA Rajendra Pambhoi: “Naxalite terror must end, but the manner in which many people are getting killed calls for a rethink. We must ensure that people won’t have to die. And how many days can you maintain the relief camps? The tribals will have to return to their villages one day. Who will take care of their security then?” Pambhoi, whose constituency is now the Judum heartland, says he can’t move around because of death threats. “Even if you push the Naxalites out of state, they will take refuge in Maharashtra, Andhra and Orissa. Once the campaign loses its steam, they could again stage a comeback,” he warns. Raman Singh blames it on the Centre. “If the Centre becomes serious, this menace can be weeded out permanently,” he says, “we can create clusters of villages so that Naxals won’t be able to strike easily.” But Karma doesn’t care. “Once we weed them out, they won’t dare to come back. People won’t let them in.”
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<b>Please use default font unless you have a good reason - Admin</b>

[acharya]

Time has come for BJP's end: Uma Bharti

Indore, March 4. (PTI): Expelled BJP leader Uma Bharti on Friday claimed the saffron party "silenced" several of its leaders in the name of discipline but now the time has come when its end is near.

"In the name of discipline, BJP silenced leaders like Madan Lal Khurana, Kalyan Singh, Babulal Marandi, Sunder Singh Bhandari, J P Mathur, Krishnalal Sharma and Tapan Sikdar among others," she claimed while addressing a public meeting here during her Janadesh Yatra.

"The party expelled me with a thought that it would finish me off (politically) but the party and its leaders are under an illusion and were not aware that the time has come for their (political) end as the party has deviated from the ideology of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee," Bharti claimed.

Bharti alleged "the party is running a campaign to demolish Uma Bharti, which the large number of women, men and youth will never allow to happen".

The expelled leader outlined her five commandments (panch nishtha) -- self-respect, security, indigenous, transparency and good governance, urging people to extend support to her on these issues so that a new political formation could take place by April 30 at the end of her Yatra.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-acharya+Mar 5 2006, 03:15 AM-->QUOTE(acharya @ Mar 5 2006, 03:15 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Time has come for BJP's end: Uma Bharti

Indore, March 4. (PTI): Expelled BJP leader Uma Bharti on Friday claimed the saffron party "silenced" several of its leaders in the name of discipline but now the time has come when its end is near.

"In the name of discipline, BJP silenced leaders like Madan Lal Khurana, Kalyan Singh, Babulal Marandi, Sunder Singh Bhandari, J P Mathur, Krishnalal Sharma and Tapan Sikdar among others," she claimed while addressing a public meeting here during her Janadesh Yatra.

"The party expelled me with a thought that it would finish me off (politically) but the party and its leaders are under an illusion and were not aware that the time has come for their (political) end as the party has deviated from the ideology of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee," Bharti claimed.

Bharti alleged "the party is running a campaign to demolish Uma Bharti, which the large number of women, men and youth will never allow to happen".

The expelled leader outlined her five commandments (panch nishtha) -- self-respect, security, indigenous, transparency and good governance, urging people to extend support to her on these issues so that a new political formation could take place by April 30 at the end of her Yatra.
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Umaji need to go on sabbatical and might study few things about PR management and self control....I thought she was a sanyassin.

[Guest]

Here is Vir Singhvi HT's opion
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>When peace with Pakistan came up, every single person I met was clear: there could only be peace on our terms. And this meant not giving up an inch of Kashmir. Nor was there any support for the idea of more autonomy for Kashmir.</b>

So, let us treat all this liberal rhetoric about how Indians long for peace with scepticism. <b>Our idea of peace is: Pakistan should shut up and behave itself or we will retaliate is not a public mood that will lead to any lasting settlement of this long-running conflict.</b> And I think that the challenge before politicians is to shift the consensus. Big Media has tried. And I think it has failed.

• <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>The general view in Delhi is that the BJP is floundering, that it is a party without an issue. Judging by my travels, this view could be seriously mistaken.

There is a massive Hindu backlash building up. The public mood reminded me of the late 1980s, when such issues as Shah Bano and The Satanic Verses so upset moderate Hindus that they turned against Congress-style secularism.</span>

<b>The provocation, this time around, is the attitude of the Muslim political leadership to foreign Islamic issues.</b> No Hindu I met thought it was right for a Danish paper to carry cartoons of the Prophet. <b>But why, they all asked, did Indians Muslims have to get so agitated? What did it have to do with us? Why should a minister in the UP government announce a bounty on the head of the Danish cartoonist? Why should Indian Muslims demand the recall of the Danish ambassador?</b>

I have written about the shameful cop-out by liberal Muslims over these issues before so I will not labour the point. But the Hindu backlash is a perfect issue waiting for a BJP initiative. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>This time around, the BJP need not focus on how Indian secularism makes Hindus second-class citizens in their own country.</span>

(Nobody buys that line any longer.) <b>All it needs to do is to portray Indian Muslims as unreasonable fanatics obsessed with global Muslim issues and argue that they subscribe to some international pan-Islamic identity that could easily conflict with Indian nationalism</b>.

My feeling is that if liberal Muslims continue to react as pathetically as they have over the last few months and if liberal Hindus do not make it clear that genuine secularism means that we fight all kinds of fanaticism — both Hindu and Muslim — a new generation of BJP leaders will ride this backlash to return to power. By ignoring the Hindu sentiment, Big Media is making a big mistake.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

Is Vir Singhvi a Jain?

Is that why he is anti-Hindu?

[shamu]

<!--QuoteBegin-mitradena+Mar 6 2006, 05:30 AM-->QUOTE(mitradena @ Mar 6 2006, 05:30 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Is Vir Singhvi a Jain?

Is that why he is anti-Hindu?
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Jains are not anti-Hindus. You can not separate Jains and Hindus.