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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