The Hindu : National : Total commitment to Ram temple: Advani

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Thursday, Apr 07, 2005

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National

Total commitment to Ram temple: Advani

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, APRIL 6. The Bharatiya Janata Party president, L.K. Advani, today made a strong bid to veer the party back to the path of "cultural nationalism'' — a synonym for Hindutva — and to a "total, unshakeable and irreversible'' commitment to the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

Mr. Advani's two-hour long address at the BJP's silver jubilee national council session here was devoted to spelling out some of the old issues in its "cultural nationalism'' plank — he talked of the "threat of a demographic invasion'' from "Bangladeshi infiltration'' which could lead to a "second partition of India;'' he demanded the repeal of the Illegal Migrants (determination by Tribunal) Act and wanted the Prime Minister to call an all-party meeting on this. He said his Somnath to Ayodhya `rath-yatra' was the biggest people's movement in free India that had triggered a debate on the "roots of our nationhood;'' and he strongly affirmed the BJP's association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh asking the party workers to "grasp this truth'' and "strengthen bonds with organisations and individuals in this larger fraternity [of the Sangh Parivar].''

`National issue'

Mr. Advani also referred to the "religious demographic changes'' in India, indicating that the country should beware of a faster population growth among Muslims. This was a "national issue,'' he said, while claimingthat it was the BJP, which was a truly secular party.

Links on affidavit

If there was any doubt left on the direction the party headed for, the party general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, clarified that anyone who chose to associate with the BJP should know that the "BJP's links with the RSS should be considered as given in an affidavit.'' He said that they [any present or future allies] should "know our blood group. If it matches [with theirs], they should come to us, if not, they should not.'' His advice to the delegates was that there was no need to hide the party's agenda or its commitment to its ideology.

In his address Mr. Advani said that one of the main factors responsible for the party's defeat in the May 2004 general election was "the party's failure to nurse its core constituency.'' The party had not adequately contacted those who supported it because of a shared ideology, and it also ignored the party workers. Again, it was a point that was later elaborated by Mr. Mahajan when he warned the party, especially where it was in power in the States, that it could provide governance with the help of bureaucrats but it could never get re-elected with their help after ignoring party workers.

Speaker after speaker spoke in a self-congratulatory tone, talking about the excellent work done by the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance Government it headed for six years, while they berated the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and the Manmohan Singh Government for not starting any new schemes for development and putting on the shelf some of the works started by the Vajpayee Government.

Mr. Advani talked of "signs of disintegration" of the United Progressive Alliance and Mr. Mahajan went a step further, wondering whether by the time the BJP's silver jubilee celebrations end this December, a fresh election would be on the horizon.

The former party president, Venkaiah Naidu, spelt out the elaborate functions to be organised till the year-end with a grand finale of "all the party workers'' in Mumbai in December.

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