The Hindu : Minorities better off with BJP, says Bangarappa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 03, 2004

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National

Minorities better off with BJP, says Bangarappa

By Our Special Correspondent

SHIMOGA, MARCH 2. The former Karnataka Chief Minister and member of the dissolved Lok Sabha, S. Bangarappa, said here today that the BJP served the interests of the minorities better than the Congress, as "it no longer remains `untouchable.' Anybody can touch it but, on the other hand, the Congress reacts adversely if anybody approaches it, and its leadership under Sonia Gandhi has got stuck ... "

Addressing a gathering of his supporters to seek their approval of his decision to leave the Congress, Mr. Bangarappa said he had come to the conclusion that the BJP was committed to safeguarding the interests of the minorities. "It is true that I too had developed an aversion towards the BJP when the Babri Masjid was demolished and, till this day, I have not compromised on that issue. But nothing is more heartening to know than that those who were responsible for the demolition of the Masjid have offered to reconstruct it."

Mr. Bangarappa said it was precisely because there had been a lot of change in the thinking of the BJP that prominent Muslim leaders such as the former Union Minister, Arif Mohammed Khan, had joined it. The Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptullah, was said to be considering a similar move.

He said it was the peace initiatives undertaken by the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to improve relations with Pakistan that prompted him to change his opinion about him as well as the BJP.

Explaining the reasons for his decision to leave the Congress, Mr. Bangarappa said he was pained by the manner in which he had been sidelined by its leadership with no consideration for his seniority or the positions held by him.

Mr. Bangarappa said that though he was one of the senior leaders in the Congress, he had never boasted of his leadership qualities for the reason that "I am firmly entrenched in the hearts of the people."

Recalling that he had had the privilege of serving the party as the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) when Indira Gandhi was the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president and later as the Chief Minister when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, he wondered how he had become irrelevant all of a sudden.

He said: "I respect Ms. Gandhi, but I have my own apprehensions about her ability to lead the party, which enjoys a rich tradition."

Criticising Ms. Gandhi's leadership qualities, he said the people had started leaving the Congress like the audience leaving a cinema hall after seeing the first reel of a bad movie. The party was losing its strength day-by-day under her leadership, he said and added that she would never be accepted as the Prime Minister.

Mr. Bangarappa said he would send in his formal resignation from the primary membership of the Congress to the KPCC president, B. Janardhana Poojary.

He criticised the State party leadership for "collecting Rs. 25,000 each from those who applied for the party's nomination to contest the Lok Sabha elections and Rs. 15,000 each from those who wanted to contest the Assembly elections. The money would not be refunded." He claimed that such a practice had never existed in the party. A sum of Rs. 500 that was collected from the aspirants used to be returned if they did not get the nomination. "The Congress was not after money then," he said.

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