Author: Rajesh Kumar
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 8, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/168119/I-have-to-take--Congress-to-graveyard.html
Minority appeasement must be stopped",
said BJP candidate for North-East Delhi Baikunthlal Sharma 'Prem'. He is fighting
the election on Hindutva platform and his priorities are very clear. "Politics
is not in my nature, but I am forced to return because I have to take the
Congress to the graveyard," said Prem, adding that besides failures of
the UPA Government on all fronts, religious appeasement by the Congress, the
massacre Sikhs and Hindutva would remain his main campaign issues. "I
would ask Hindu families to vote for the BJP, that's why I returned to the
active politics after a self-imposed exile for 12 years," said Prem.
He is contesting against Congress stalwart and former Union Minister Jagdish
Tytler.
Talking about the role of Tytler in the 1984
anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi, Prem said: "God will never forgive Tytler. He was responsible
for the massacre of the Sikhs in 1984. The CBI might have given him a clean
chit, but the fact is that he is a mass murderer. (Woh hatyara hai. Kya Nanawati
Commission ki report jhoothi hai?)."
According to Prem, Signature Bridge on Yamuna,
Metro connectivity, opening of hospitals, girls' college, cleaning of the
Yamuna River are the other priorities. He said that rising prices of essential
commodities, recession, power and water issues would also be raised in the
election. The BJP leader also claimed that controversial Bus Rapid Transit
system (BRT) would not be allowed in North-East Delhi, if he was elected.
"The foundation for making Delhi a world class city was laid during the
BJP regime," he said. Prem further claimed that trans-Yamuna Development
Board was his creation.
The octogenarian BJP leader still believes
Akhand Bharat (unification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) can be realised.
He rejoined the BJP a day before the party announced its seven Lok Sabha candidates
from Delhi. The BJP leader said he never asked for a ticket.
Born in 1929 in Ferozepur in Pakistan, he
had joined the RSS at the age of 11. His proximity with the RSS and VHP gave
him an edge over other ticket aspirants. Prem shot into fame after he defeated
Congress stalwart HKL Bhagat in 1991 election by 68,000 votes, repeating the
feat four years later by defeating Delhi Congress president Deep Chand Bandhu
by margin of over one lakh votes.
After resigning from active politics, Prem
has become the follower of 'Khalsa Panth' in 1997. He also shifted his base
to Haridwar. "I had better things to do," he had said.
He founded Akhand Bharat Morcha there. "Our
aim is to remove Pakistan from the map. The Congress's appeasement policies
and its two-nation theory spell doom for the country. Like Israel, which wants
a unified country by wiping out Palestine, we also dream of a unified India."
The magazine run by his organisation, Abhay
Bharat, carries a map of the undivided India, and come August 14, Sharma and
his Morcha members take a pledge to map India exactly thus. In fact, he has
been a devout proponent of 'Akhand Bharat' for decades now.
"All 68 districts and 218 religious places
in Pakistan are ours; they should be duly returned to India," he thunders.
Prem also claims that Muslims were earlier Hindus who were converted to Islam
under "duress or special circumstances".
The senior BJP leader believes in Hindu Rashtra.
"Hindu Rashtra is too vast. There will be no divisions; it's an ideology,
a principle. It will include other communities also," he said.
Having been questioned by the Mumbai Police's
Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with the blasts at Malegaon in Maharashtra,
he dismisses the police interrogation. "I was interrogated twice but
they could not find anything against me. I am a central secretary of the VHP,
and several sadhus and thinkers came to meet me; what is the harm in that,"
he asked.
Talking about his health, Prem said that the
age factor could not create any problem in his work because he takes a healthy
diet, which comprises fruit juice, gram, milk, green vegetables and nimbu
pani every day.
"I also take walk every morning in my
house at BK Dutt Colony. Besides, the will to work is driving me ahead,"
he added.
