Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: July 6, 2004
In a message clarifying the BJP's
stand vis-a-vis the RSS, plus a strong reaction to the UPA Government's
sacking of Governors, BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee said on Tuesday
that the Congress was imposing a "poisonous ideology" on the country and
laying the foundations of the next "Partition".
The former Prime Minister was speaking
at the BJP office on the occasion of the 103rd birth anniversary of Syama
Prasad Mookerjee.
Leader of Opposition LK Advani also
strongly criticised the UPA Government's mindset about "desaffronisation",
calling it "dangerous" and an "outrageous assault on the Constitution".
Making a strong case for the RSS,
Mr Vajpayee said "our ideology" is "nationalistic" and "compatible with
the Constitution", which was the touchstone of patriotism. He asked the
Congress to clarify its ideology and at the same time told partymen that
"we are ready for a battle of ideologies".
Taking exception to the Prime Minister
and Sonia Gandhi staying away from the function in Parliament, the former
Prime Minister said: "It's Congress's history to treat opponents as enemies
and then eliminate them." Stressing on the point, he said the Congress
had not included Subhash Chandra Bose in the pantheon of heroes.
Earlier, Mr Advani said the new
Government had adopted a confrontationist attitude to isolate the BJP for
difference of ideological beliefs. Citing the RSS as a reason for three
decisions - sacking of Governors, not inviting the BJP to a convention
on minorities and Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi absenting themselves
from Syama Prasad Mookerjee's birth anniversary function in Parliament
- Mr Advani said "intolerance" was being practiced by the Government.
"It is against the Constitution's
spirit of multi-party democracy," he argued. He reminded that Jawaharlal
Nehru had inducted Mr Mookerjee, founder of Jan Sangh, in his Cabinet and
given him a key ministry.
He said the sacking of Governors
was violative of the Constitution in spirit and "whether it also violated
its letter could be settled by a court of law".
Stressing on the multi-ideology
democracy, Mr Advani wondered what made Left ideologue EMS Namboodiripad,
general secretary of the Malabar Congress at the same time when RSS founder
KB Hedgewar, held the same post in Vidarbha Congress. Remarked he: "Despite
the ideological differences, there is something that binds us, it is concern
for national interest and nationalism, in our own different ways."
Recalling his journey with Mr Mookerjee
during his protest march to Kashmir against the permit system for entry,
Mr Vajpayee said then Jawaharlal Nehru regime conspired to let him cross
Punjab but arrest him in Kashmir. "Else, it would have led to Constitutional
questions," he said. But for his sacrifice for unification of Kashmir with
the rest of the country, Mr Vajpayee said, there would have been more problems
in the troubled state.
Earlier, BJP president Venkaiah
Naidu said that Mr Mookerjee had formed the Jan Sangh to unite the nationalist
forces against the appeasement policies of Congress. "He has been a victim
of distortion of history by the Left and the Congress," he said.
Among those present were BJP leaders
Jaswant Singh, Jana Krishnamurthy among others.
