Author:
Publication: The Times Of India
Date: January 5, 2003
Equating the concept of Hindutva
with secularism, deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani declared on Saturday
that India was a Hindu nation and hence it was secular.
Addressing the first state executive
meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party after the party's poll victory in
Gujarat, Mr Advani indicated that Hindutva would be made the BJP's poll
agenda during elections in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya
Pradesh and even in the Lok Sabha polls in 2004. "People ask me whether
we will make Hindutva a poll plank, I think, we should concentrate on good
governance, security and development. But if the opposition raises Hindutva,
we will certainly make that an issue," he warned.
Mr Advani said that this was the
first-ever election where the polls in a state had affected the politics
of the entire country "We should, however, understand what Hindutva or
cultural nationalism means. Historically, whoever may have ruled different
parts of the country, it is cultural nationalism alone that has united
those living in India. Those living in the south visit the north, and vice
versa, and this cultural nationalism needs to be understood," he emphasised.
At the same time, he warned those who sought to be bitter while defending
Hindutva.
He suggested that the Congress had
failed understand the pulse of the people in the new situation that had
developed after the Gujarat polls in the same way it had failed in 1977
after the Emergency Mr Advani said, "If Nehru believed with conviction
in his concept of secularism, those who followed him used religion for
vote-bank purposes. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has no problem in going
to Ambaji for attracting Hindu vote. Rajiv Gandhi opened the gates of the
disputed site in Ayodhya, again for the same purpose. We, on the contrary,
firmly believe in building a temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi."
Criticising the media for its alleged
anti-BJP campaign, Mr Advani said, "The media campaign actually helped
us in Gujarat. The moat it talked of Godhra, the more it helped us. People
in Gujarat took it as an attempt to defame, their pride. We got a lot of
protest vote." Suggesting that a similar situation might develop in the
country, as a whole, he added, Gujarat should become the role model for
other parts."