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BJP National Executive meet : Temple issue given up, terrorism to be focus for polls

	November 05, 2001

There were clear signs at the Amritsar conclave of the BJP national executive that the party is not keen on reviving the temple issue for the assembly elections next year. In fact it plans to latch on to fighting terrorism as a concern for entire nation. This would give the BJP more of a national image rather than a north-based party with the narrow, communal plank of temple construction at Ayodhya. The BJP seemed to realise the risks in projecting itself as a party only keen on the Hindutva agenda. This would have certainly rocked the stability of the NDA. Keeping this in mind, the BJP behaved much like a constituent of the NDA during the two- day conclave. It did not refer once to the Ayodhya issue which had propelled at the party forum.

Taking tough stand on Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO), the BJP decided to make terrorism a major poll plank in the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Punjab with the launch of a countrywide campaign on November 18 to fight this menace. The two-day meeting of the party’s national executive which concluded in Amritsar on November 3 also decided to make the ban on SIMI its top poll agenda in UP while remaining silent on the Ram Janmabhoomi issue.

Charging the Opposition parties with allowing politics to come in the way of national security, Home Minister L.K. Advani in his address to the national executive said it was a “win-win” situation for the party either way if the anti-terror bill is passed or defeated in Parliament. He said the current ordinance was promulgated after due consultations with the Law Commission and National Human Rights Commission. Recalling that the Congress and other Opposition parties had opposed the government on the Pokharan tests and its handling of the Kargil crisis, Advani asked partymen to counter their disinformation campaign on POTO.

As part of its strategy, BJP would observe a “national unity and anti-terrorism day” to mobilise public opinion in fight against terrorism on November 18, which would be addressed by central leaders, party president Jana Krishnamurthy told reporters in Amritsar. The party would also bring out a publication on POTO to reach out to the people, he said.

It is clear that temple construction is not going to form a part of the BJP’s strategy in the Assembly polls, even as the party’s national executive discussed poll strategy in UP, Uttaranchal, Punjab and Manipur, with party chiefs in these states giving briefings to the apex committee. While BJP chief Jana Krishnamurthy confirmed that Ayodhya did not figure in the party’s deliberations, UP BJP chief Kalraj Mishra asserted that Ayodhya would not be used as a political issue. ‘’It is a cultural and a national issue, there is no need to make it into a political issue,’’ Mishra said at the end of the meet.

In the past, other parties too had made it into a political issue by opposing it, the UP BJP chief said. ‘’Social organisations are working for the temple construction. They look to us only to remove the obstacles, and the Prime Minister has promised to find a solution to the problem by March 12, 2002.’’

There are three reasons why the party may have decided to stay away from the issue which yielded it rich electoral dividends not so long ago. One, it may want to signal the world that its fight against terrorism is not dictated by its pro-temple ideology.

Two, it does not want to queer the pitch for the Vajpayee government, by raking up the issue which would send allies on the warpath. And three, most important, the party realises that Ayodhya may no longer be an emotive issue with the people for winning the election.

Even as Prime Minister Vajpayee was talking about Ayodhya being a symbol of national sentiment last December to placate the Sangh Parivar, Rajnath Singh was very clear that the farmers’ issues would have a greater bearing on polls in UP than the Ram Janmabhoomi temple.

With a makeshift temple already in place where the Babri Masjid stood, the RSS too may be content to let things be, particularly while the BJP is in power. As for the VHP, whose relevance to linked to the temple, it will continue to make noises on the issue. Its leaders violated the court order banning entry into the sanctum sanctorum and cases have been initiated against them. The BJP’s key issues in polls this time will be internal security, with POTO, and a ban on SIMI, calculated to appeal to the upper castes and the city-based.

The BJP focus on terrorism is based on the theory that even non-BJP parties would think twice before being seen as a supporter of militancy. The continuing violence and bloodshed in J&K as well as the global war on terrorist networks have given the BJP the option to highlight the issue and be seen as a tough party that took care of the security concerns of its people.

The BJP wanted that New Delhi must consider all options in fighting separatists, including pursuing those operating in Kashmir into their bases in Pakistan. The party backed the government’s decision not to strike at this stage at camps which India says exist in Pakistan to train fighters for the Kashmir region, but said this option could be used in the national interest. “India has rightly chosen for the present not to go in for hot pursuit as it has full confidence in itself to succeed... but if the situation demands, circumstances compel and national interest needs, then nothing should come in the way of the country in going all out to eliminate terrorism from both inside and outside the country,” the party said in its resolution adopted at the end of the conclave

The national executive meet adopted a resolution on terrorism, which stressed that India should go all out to eliminate terror from both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the country. The resolution, released by party chief K Jana Krishnamurthy pointed out: “India has rightly chosen for the present not to go in for hot pursuit (of the terrorists across the Line of Control), as it has full confidence in its present proactive policy.” But the option of exercising ‘hot pursuit’ in the future, was justified in the resolution by referring to the US policy of ‘crossing continents’ to wage war against international terrorism. It said the party’s national executive appreciated the government’s determined stand to combat terrorism unleashed by terrorist groups across the border, aided and abetted by Pakistan.

It said the BJP, therefore, urged the government to bring forward suitable legislation to tackle terrorism, referring to the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance as ‘a step that needs to be supported by all’.

The resolution expressed the hope that Muslim leaders in India and around the world ‘will appeal to their followers to disassociate themselves from the small group of fanatics who are committing acts of terrorism in the name of religion’. “Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had very appropriately cautioned the people against identifying terrorism with Islam,” the resolution said. It, however, underscored that India’s assistance (to the US in fight against global terrorism) should be in accordance with national interests.

Later, Krishnamurthy said the BJP would observe November 18 as National Unity against Terrorism Day, and would bring out a publication containing the intricacies and clarifications on POTO to mobilise the masses in its favour.



No rift on POTO

BJP leaders have rejected the perception that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani were at variance on POTO. While Advani had adopted a combative stand on it by contending that opposition parties were ‘wittingly or unwittingly’ helping terrorists by opposing POTO, Vajpayee told the executive meet that a consensus is necessary for POTO to become a law. BJP chief Krishnamurthy, however, flatly denied that Advani had made such an assertion. Trying to clarify the situation, Krishnamurthy said Advani had stressed that unlike the opposition parties, the BJP did not allow political considerations to come in the way of national security interests. According to Krishnamurthy, Advani had pointed out that the Congress-ruled state of Maharashtra had a similar legislation, as did Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

Deploring the opposition parties alleged view of POTO from a ‘political angle’, Krishnamurthy quoted the home minister as underscoring that the government was successful in combating terrorism as reflected in its destruction of 125 Inter-Services Intelligence modules and the killing of a large number of terrorists. Advani also had referred to the banning of the Students Islamic Movement of India as the government’s fight against terrorism, the BJP chief pointed out.

There was some consternation among Bharatiya Janata Party activists attending the rally in Amritsar, when Advani failed to address them. While Krishnamurthy addressed the rally, followed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani did not, though he was present on the dais and was listed as the last speaker. Advani’s failure to address the rally became all the more conspicuous because of the lavish approbation Vajpayee lapped up from the large gathering, which clapped and cheered on his assertion that Pakistan’s game plan on Jammu & Kashmir would never be allowed to succeed.



Bangaru Laxman on comeback trail

The welcome accorded to Bangaru Laxman, who came to Amritsar to attend the BJP national executive meet, overshadowed the one given to the party president Jana Krishnamurthy . Slogan-shouting Dalits, mobilised by the party’s SC-ST forum, welcomed Bangaru who has been in the dog house since Tehelka caught him taking money on video and he quit as party chief. Krishnamurthy was quickly whisked away in a car to his hotel.

Bangaru was escorted by his supporters to a specially constructed dais at the station. He read this to mean that his supporters did not consider him guilty. He gloated : ‘’The workers are conveying to the party leadership that Bangaru has not done any wrong, and that they don’t believe the wild allegations that have been made.’’ Bangaru himself has not lost hope of being reinstated as the party chief.

Taking a swipe at Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam who resigned from Parliament’s House Committee, Bangaru said Nirupam have quit on October 9 when he took over the chairmanship of the committee. He attributed the Sena’s antipathy to his statement in Nagpur, when he had made a call for a greater role of Muslims and Dalits in the party. The reason for his present woes, he said, was that some believed that his approach of a ‘’social expansion’’ of the party would shake its very foundations. He added that the Venkatswami Commission was not a hindrance as far as party work was concerned. ‘’I am prepared to do party work. It is for the party to make use of my services.’’ Bangaru expressed the hope that the Commission probing the Tehelka charges would ‘’stick to its schedule’’.

The tussle inside the BJP over his rehabilitation, which had come to the fore after the reinduction of George Fernandes in the Cabinet, has been an undercurrent at the national executive meet. Krishnamurthy is against Bangaru’s rehabilitation till the Venkatswami Commission has cleared him. To get around the demand of putting the former party chiefs on the dais, Krishnamurthy decided instead to put all the vice-presidents on the stage along with Vajpayee, Advani and himself.

As a result, Khushabhau Thakre, a founder member of the Jan Sangh who is also a former BJP president, had to sit with the rest of the members. Bangaru was right at the back of the hall. Even at the national council meeting in Delhi, Krishnamurthy and Advani had shot down the idea of having Bangaru on the dais. His name had figured in the list of those to sit on the stage.



India can face any challenge, asserts PM

The Prime Minister used the forum of the BJP National Executive meet at Amritsar to convey the message that India would not take any steps to increase tension with Pakistan, but warned Islamabad that New Delhi was prepared to face any challenges from across the border. “The movement of troops along the border should not be misunderstood as a signal of war. From our side, we will not take any such step. But at the same time we will prevent violation of our border and face the challenge of terrorism,” Vajpayee told the party executive. Justifying his decision not to meet the Pakistan President in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this month, Vajpayee said it would be a futile exercise in the present circumstances. “Talks should not be for the sake of talks but should ensure results... I don’t see any possibility of that,” Vajpayee emphasised. He stressed that Pakistan should stop sponsoring cross-border terrorism and infiltration.

Pointing out that terrorist activities and infiltration had increased along the borders, he said restraint cannot be one-sided and Islamabad should stop cross-border terrorism and its rhetoric on Kashmir. Vajpayee asserted that Jammu and Kashmir is an inalienable part of India.

On Musharraf’s insistence on picking up the threads of Indo-Pak dialogue from Agra, Vajpayee asked: “Why not Lahore, why not Simla. Aren’t you (Pakistan) bound by the two agreements?” This was a clear sign that India had come to the conclusion that the Agra summit was a failure, in which no progress was made due to Musharraf’s insistence that Kashmir was the central issue in India-Pak relations. Vajpayee’s statement that India saw no role for third-party intervention in a purely bilateral dispute was a clear rebuff to statements emanating from the US Administration and the UN Observer on the Kashmir issue. The PM’s firm “No” to any talks in New York with Musharraf is seen as a victory for hawks in the BJP, who have been urging a tough stance on cross-border terrorism.