Sunday, February 8, 2009

Advanigi For Ram and Soft Secularism

In a bid to keep NDA allies as well hard-core cadres happy, BJP Prime Minister candidate L.K. Advani on Sunday did a balancing act -- reaching out to all sections, including Muslims and Christians, and promising good governance, development and security if voted to power. But he also added "we never gave up Ram" as he wound up the three-day conclave, after BJP chief Rajnath Singh reacted sharply to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's criticism that "those who mobilise people on religious lines, mislead people in the name of Ram cannot become an effective force against terror".

Gandhi's attack on BJP for using the name of Lord Ram came at a Congress meeting in Delhi a day after Singh raked up the issue of building a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Singh responded to her by saying those who had Lord Ram on their lips were most capable of meeting any challenge.
The BJP did not discriminate on the basis on religion or caste, he added. Advani asked, "What's wrong in wishing for a grand temple at the birth-place of Lord Ram? Every one accepts that place.

Why does anyone think we are raking up the issue. We never gave up Ram.
We can say Jai Shri Ram only when we finish the task of build a magnificent temple where the makeshift one stands today." As he wound up the three-day conclave, Advani said the BJP's success was not on account of the secularism versus communalism debate but "because of those practising pseuo-secularism in the name of secularism.

" Advani said he wanted to tell Muslims: "You have been used by the ruling party to perpetuate itself without their doing anything for your welfare." Quoting BJP's Muslim face, Shahnawaz Hussain, he said the per capita income among Muslims was highest in the BJP-ruled Gujarat.
"We believe in the welfare of all our people. I tell Christians too that how can we neglect them when our party in its avatar as BJP was born on an Easter Sunday in 1980.

" Advani recalled RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar had rejected the idea that India could ever become a Hindu theocratic state even though the Partition had taken place on religious lines - Muslim-majority areas becoming Pakistan and Hindu-dominated areas forming India. Advani said the BJP's secular credentials were founded in the nationalistic movement of the RSS launched by its founder, Dr K.B. Hegdewar, in Nagpur in 1925.

The BJP was born of the RSS' concept of "India first" in which even the party and ideology came secondary to the interests of the nation. Advani, who praised the entire lot of second generation leaders, particularly Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, gave a new slogan for the BJP - 'If the BJP wins, India wins'.

He said, "The victory we are seeking is not for Advani (to become the Prime Minister) but for the country to overcome its ills and set itself on a path of development, welfare and security." He asked BJP men to avoid self-goals by avoiding internal wrangling and intrigues.

The UPA's performance was so full of failures and betrayals "that its continuation in office constitutes a threat to the vital interests of the country and its people. The situation today casts a responsibility on us to ensure the NDA wins a decisive mandate.
We can certainly do it. We shall do it - with a positive agenda".