'All mainstream parties are secular'
Suresh Nautiyal
The Observer
May 24, 1999
Title: 'All mainstream parties are secular'
Author: Suresh Nautiyal
Publication: The Observer
Date: May 24, 1999
Octogenarian politician and senior Samata Party leader, Abdul Ghafoor,
said that the time had come to erase the distraction between communal
and secular parties from our political diction as the distinction had
been created simply to serve political purpose by the self seeking
politicians.
The 81-year old veteran politician with an impressive track record of
holding important offices including the Chief Ministership of Bihar,
asserted that, "no mains political party in the country was guided by
communal thinking - not even the BJP under the present leadership and
thinking."
All praise for the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he asked, "can
anyone consider Vajpayee as communal? He has not done anything that
can even slightly point towards his being a communal person," he
maintained, while adding that Vajpayee was the one who, on the
demolition of the Babri Masjid, said in the Lok Sabha that it was an
unfortunate and condemnable act and had demanded that the guilty be
punished.
Mr Ghafoor in an exclusively interview to The Observer Of Business and
Politics on Sunday said that the BJP, now am" of the ground realities,
was increasingly wearing a secular face and was even imbibing the
ideology which used to be exclusively associated with the called
secular parties.
Commenting on the "successful transition of the BJP to become the
leading party of the Indian polity replacing the Congress, Ghafoor
said that a time may even come when they will successfully takeover
the secular agenda from the communists.
"The BJP fist snatched the Congress agenda of nationalism, swadeshi
etc, and now it is eyeing the communist agenda of secularism," he said
wondering, "what will the communists do when the BJP is able to steal
that too?"
Digging hard at the communist parties, the Samata leader questioned
their very existence saying the ideologies they were following were
getting more and more unrelated to the real issues.
Ghafoor said the Samata Party of candidates to be fielded in the
ensuing elections. According to him, deliberations were still on and
a final decision would be taken after a full view of the situation.
He pointed out that being a member of the BJP-led National Democratic
Alliance, the Samata Party would not take an independent view of the
situation. "Only a meeting of the NDA can decide how many seats
should be alloted to the Samata Party," he added.
He scotched the rumours that some of the party MEPS, including
himself, were likely to be denied party tickets to fight the 13th Lok
Sabha elections. "I, being the Chairman of the Samata Party
Parliamentary Board, will give tickets to the party candidates. There
is no discussion about denying their tickets," he remarked.
It is alleged that the party leadership has taken a serious view of
the "conduct" of those MPs who tried to split the party at the time of
the Vajpayee Government's confidence vote. According to the sources,
four MPs of the party had agreed collectively to split the party but
they could not do so as they required at least five members to do that
as the strength of the Samata Party stood at 13 in the 12th Look
Sabha.
Taking a stoic view of Life, the former Chief Minister of Bihar said
it was wrong to say that he was "dying to become a Minister" at the
Centre. "I have no interest in holding the post of a Minister. It
hardly makes a difference for me. I have had too much of it," he
emphasised.
Ghafoor said the real issue was to strengthen the party and be able to
win the maximum number of seats in the forth-coming elections so that
the NDA was able to a~ a comeback and remain in power.
When asked what the Samata Party planned to get back its status of a
national party, Ghafoor replied that the party President, George
Fernandes, was trying his level best to keep the herd together and a
strategy was being to this effect.
The Election Commission has stripped the Samata Party of its national
stature. Now, the party remains a recognised regional party in Bihar
only. The Election Commission took this action as the party had
failed to poll required percentage of votes in the last Lok Sabha
elections in the required number of states.
Ghafoor avoided to make any comment on the intra-party politics of the
Samata Party in Bihar. "Everybody knows what is happening here.
There is no need to drag the issue unnecessarily. Without naming the
leaders like Shivanand Tiwari and Brishen Patel, he said some of the
leaders were chasing personal agenda only.
He hoped that the expelled Congress leader, Sharad Pawar, and his
would be outfit would rally behind the NDA and help it win the
elections overwhelmingly. He remarked that Pawar and the NDA would
benefit in Maharashtra in the next Lok Sabha elections from the
present political developments.
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