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| Double standard: BJP has no moral right to criticize Congress on Afzal Guru issue | | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 14: RSS-appointee BJP national president Nitin Gadkari has, it seems, gone astray. He has lost control over his tongue. He is using such language against his political opponents which no civilized politician would ever use. That he has lost control over his tongue could be seen from the comparison he made between dogs and senior leaders, including Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Rashatriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SM). He virtually compared these two senior leaders with dogs because they and their parties had not supported the BJP-sponsored cut-motion in the last budget session of the Parliament. He had to tender an unconditional apology when the condemned leaders and the ever-alert media took on Nitin Gadkari and dubbed him as one of the most uncultured politicians India has ever produced.
Nitin Gadkari had every right to criticize the two Yadavs because they had played dirty politics on the issue. For example, they bitterly criticized the budget proposals, attacked the Congress-led UPA government and even threatened to withdraw support to the government, but when it came to voting, they walked out of the House, saying they could not support the BJP-sponsored cut-motion because supporting it would mean giving legitimacy to the BJP's politics of communalism. The two Yadavs did make a mockery of themselves by walking out or by coming to the rescue of the Congress-led UPA government. Had they voted for the cut-motion, the government would have collapsed.
Anyway, it was hoped that Nitin Gadkari would learn lessons and refrain from using uncivilized language considering the circumstances under which he had to tender an apology. But it turned out to be false hope. Gadkari took no time in coming to his true colours and described Afzal Guru, convicted in the Parliament attack case, as "son-in-law" of the Congress. It was height of indecency.
It needs to be noted that Nitin Gadkari had accused the Congress of going slow as far as the decision on the execution of Afzal Guru was concerned. His argument was that the Congress was adopting delaying tactics to save Afzal Guru because he appeared to him to be the Congress party's "son-in-law." Nitin Gadkari didn't know that his remarks would cost his party very dearly and that there would be none in the party whe would defend him and his uncalled for remarks. Remember, none of the BJP national spokespersons, including Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar and Rajiv Pratap Roodi, has defended their president's remarks. On the contrary, former BJP national president Murli Manohar Joshi has publicly disapproved of the kind of language Nitin Gadkari used against the Congress leadership. He has said: "Even serious charges can be leveled in a sophisticated manner."
As expected, his uncivilized comment provoked the Congress party to react and expose the BJP's double-speak and double-standards. Finance Minister Pranab Mukharjee, Minister of minority Affairs Salman Khurshid, Congress national spokesperson Munish Tiwari and Congress national general secretary and in-charge of UPCC Digvijay Singh have all taken on and ridiculed Nitin Gadkari. Each one of them has advised Nitin Gadkari to behave in a responsible manner as he is president of the main opposition BJP.
However, Munish Tiwari and Digvijay Singh have been more sever in their criticism. While Tiwari has advised Gadkari to go in for some treatment in some mental asylum, Singh has asked the BJP national president to explain the stand of the BJP on "Ram Jethmalani, particularly in the light of the latter defending Afzal Guru in court in a bid to prove his innocence."
Reacting to Gadkari's remark whether "Afzal Guru (was) the son-in-law of the Congress party", Digvijay Singh said at Lucknow the other day that the "BJP should explain its relations with Jethmalani, who defended Afzal Guru and was then made Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament from Rajasthan." "What is Jethmalani to Gadkari?," he also asked. In addition, he ridiculed Gadkari by saying that the "Congress does not want to pay heed to someone like Gadkari." So much so, he said, "this BJP leader has never won an election and he owes his current status to the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat as the two lived in the same locality in Nagpur."
Digvijay Singh hit the nail on the head by asking Gadkari to explain why did the BJP give mandate to Jethmalani to enter Rajya Sabha via Rajasthan, who had defended to the hilt Afzal Guru? Gadkari cannot explain. Why because he and his party believe in double-speak and double-standards. They cunningly arouse the Hindu sentiments for garnering votes by pretending that they are for their cause as well as for the national cause, but outrage the same in no time to establish their "secular" credentials. It's no wonder that the people have started hating the BJP.
However, Digvijay Singh didn't ask Gadkari to explain why did the BJP give mandate to Jethmalani who had been promoting the Musharraf's four-point Kashmir formula - formula that not only helps Pakistan and the Kashmiri separatists to accomplish their anti-India designs, but also divides Jammu province on purely communal lines. He should have asked this question. Had he asked him this question, Gadkari would have fallen flat because the BJP had been working on those lines since March 1999. BJP has lost the moral and political right to speak on the Afzal Guru issue, as also on the issue of national unity.
BJP leadership would do well to follow the cardinal principles of politics. It should not use the language and terminology its national president uses. Similarly, it must abandon the politics of rhetoric, deceit and emotional blackmail. It should say what it believes in. It cannot not say in public that it stands for national unity and national integrity and, at the same time, indulge in behind-the-scene activities designed to harm the country's paramount interests. The people have already seen through their dirty game-plan. If it wishes to remain relevant in the country's political arena, it has to reform itself and come up to the expectations of the people. Otherwise!
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