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| PARTY WITHOUT IDEOLOGY | | ‘Secular’ BJP should not shed crocodile tears | |
RUSTAM
JAMMU, FEB 2: The BJP continues to indulge in double-speak in order to hoodwink and mislead the people in general and Hindus in particular. It continues to say things in public it doesn’t believe in and it is doing so to confuse the people, who already know that the BJP is a party having no ideology and that it is the only outfit in the country that compromised its so-called nationalist and pro-Hindu ideology as early as in 1998 to fulfill its lust for power and money. In 1998, the BJP formed a rag-tag coalition, but only after abandoning its three fundamental demands – abrogation of Article 370, application of Uniform Civil Code and construction of Ram Temple.
In fact, in 1998, the BJP exposed its real face and established that its power-hungry and unscrupulous leadership could go to any extent to fulfill its lust for power and pelf. It may appear ludicrous but it is a STARK REALITY that the BJP had given up its demand for the abrogation of Article 370 in 1996, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared in unequivocal terms that “Article 370 shall ever remain part of the Indian Constitution”.
It is a different story that the people of the country, particularly the Hindus, voted overwhelmingly for the BJP in 1998 and enabled it to capture power at the Centre, of course, after it compromised its ideology in order to seek the support of over two dozen parties, all opposed to what the BJP seemingly stood for.
That the BJP continues to indulge in double-speak and politics of rabble-rousing again became evident on January 31, when the J&K BJP organized a function at Jourian for paying tributes to the martyrs of 1952-53. Speaking on the occasion, the newly-appointed state BJP president, Shamsher Singh Manhas, accused the Congress-led UPA Government of appeasing the Kashmiri separatists and declared that the BJP will not allow the Congress-led Government at the Centre to reverse the process of the state’s integration with India.
His plea was that the BJP has all along stood for the abrogation of Article 370 and the state’s full integration with India. He made the statement on Article 370 despite the fact that he knew it full well that his senior colleagues who had finalized the 2008 assembly elections manifesto had deliberately removed from the draft manifesto that portion which dealt with Article 370. Those who gave concrete shape to the draft manifesto included, among others, according to insiders, Chaman Lal Gupta and Nirmal Singh.
What the newly-appointed (not newly-elected) BJP state president said at the function was not a faux pas. It was part of the strategy the BJP high command has been employing to hoodwink and mislead the people, particularly the Hindus. The newly-appointed BJP state president does know the stand of Vajpyee on Article 370. He also knows that Vajpayee had virtually rebuked the people of Jammu at the Abhinav Theatre, saying “it has become customary with the people of Jammu to accuse the state government of adopting discriminating policy against them”.
The newly-appointed state BJP president also knows that the BJP had as early as in March 1999 agreed during the meeting between the foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz at Colombo to hold “plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir on regional/district-basis”, grant “maximum possible autonomy to Kashmir and its adjoining areas”, divide Jammu province along Chenab River” and render the Actual Line of Control “irrelevant”. Besides, he knows that the agreed formula, which was to be implemented “within a timeframe of four/five years”, could not be implemented because of the 1999 Pakistani incursion in Kargil as well as the collapse of the BJP-led NDA Government in 2004.
Not just that. The newly-appointed state BJP president is aware of what transpired in the last session of the Rajya Sabha between the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley. He knows that Arun Jaitley had asked only one question to the Home Minister and his question was: “Have you taken the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister into confidence as far as quiet talks and quiet diplomacy on Jammu and Kashmir is concerned?” The answer of the Union Home Minister was in the affirmative and it also pleased very much Arun Jaitley.
The nature of discussion in the Rajya Sabha on quite talks and quiet diplomacy clearly indicated that it was not just the National Conference and the Congress, which are ruling the state, are working in unison, but also established that the BJP, the Congress and the National Conference are working in tandem.
The state BJP president must stop hoodwinking the people. Instead, he should tell them that his party has, like the Congress, is a secular outfit and that it doesn’t care for those who, including Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, laid down their lives for the cause of the nation in Jammu and Kashmir. The people are fed up with the kind of politics the BJP has been playing since 1996. It is a STARK REALITY and he should know it. He should see to it that his outfit doesn’t become an object of ridicule and contempt.
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