The Hindu : National : Congress-extremists nexus in many States, alleges BJP

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Friday, Nov 26, 2004

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Congress-extremists nexus in many States, alleges BJP

By Neena Vyas

RANCHI, NOV. 25. The Bharatiya Janata Party today alleged that there was a ``nexus'' between certain extremist forces and the Congress. This had become ``visible'' in several States and ``vote bank politics'' had shaped the ``casual approach'' of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government's policies on internal security, it said.

In a resolution on internal security adopted at the national executive committee meeting here today, the party reiterated its known stand on the ``dialogue'' with naxalites in Andhra Pradesh. The resolution was along the expected lines: it criticised the UPA Government for repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA); it did not approve of the dialogue with naxals; demanded scrapping of the Illegal Migrants Act; spoke about the ``demographic invasion of India'' as a result of ``illegal infiltration from Bangladesh''; and shed tears over the ``broken'' internal peace dialogue started by the National Democratic Alliance Government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Referring to the `nexus,'' party leaders here privately said that in the Lok Sabha elections the BJP fared badly — winning only one of 14 seats — because ``naxals helped to rig the elections in favour of the strongest anti-BJP candidate.'' The party general secretary, Arun Jaitley, who briefed the Press on this, said that the ``nexus'' had become ``most visible'' in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.

Resolution diluted?

Significantly, while the draft resolution spoke about the need to ``crush'' the naxalites, the final resolution said that a joint command and task force should be constituted to ``adequately deal with naxalite extremists.'' Mr. Jaitley said that the ``dealing with'' included ``crushing'' and there was ``no dilution'' only ``better usage of words.''

But the ``dilution'' was visible in other areas. The ``draft'' resolution had warned about the ``perverse use of madrasas all along the country's borders, but this was changed to ``perverse use of some madrasas.''

In a resolution on agriculture, the party demanded doubling of investment in the sector and a ban on cow slaughter. The resolution demanded an increase in investment in agriculture and irrigation and implementation of the crop insurance scheme started by the NDA Government. But, it had a Hindutva component - call for a total ban on cow slaughter through a Central legislation. However, the general secretary, Rajnath Singh, who moved the resolution and briefed the Press, did admit that the NDA Government's attempt to get such a bill passed had failed. Nevertheless the BJP was ``demanding'' that the UPA Government pass this legislation.

WTO agreements

The party called for safeguarding India's interests in all World Trade Organisation agreements relating to agriculture while ensuring that Indian agriculture becomes internationally competitive. It wanted a policy of a guaranteed income for farmers through crop insurance and a second income through food processing and other agriculture-related work.

On suicide by farmers in several States, the party said this was happening in ``the Congress-ruled States.'' It demanded that the Government set up a high-power committee to examine the issue and suggest ways to bring this to an end. At the same time, Mr. Singh announced that the BJP had set up a committee under the chairmanship of the former party president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, which would also study the reasons for the suicides and submit a report in four months.

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