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Paying an emotional tribute to the BJP's ideological mentor Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee on the 101st anniversary of his birthday, the newly elected president of the BJP Shri Venkaiah Naidu declared that the Bharatiya Janata Party “will never, never, agree to the State of Jammu and Kashmir going back to the pre-1953 stage”.
Starting work as the new president only today, Dr Mookerjee's birth anniversary, Shri Naidu who did not have the good fortune of ever seeing Dr. Mookerjee (he was born in 1949 only), said the party was all for extending more powers to the States for achieving various other objectives, but no return to the stage when Kashmir had a separate flag, separate Constitution and Separate Prime Minister would be permitted.
In this connection he recalled that Dr. Mookerjee had entered Kashmir without a permit in 1953 to oppose the prevalence of “Ek Desh Mein do Vidhan, do Nishan and Do Pradhan” and for fully integrating the State with the rest of the country. He had to pay with his life for this noble cause. “The BJP wants total integration of the State with the rest of the country. Nothing else is acceptable to us”, he affirmed.
Shri Naidu also stated that the BJP was opposed to the trifurcation of the State. Shri Naidu returned from Hyderabad this morning after visiting his native district Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and the Assembly constituency from where he was elected as MLA way back in 1978. He then visited the Tirupati temple, before returning to Hyderabad en route to Delhi.
Today's celebration of the birth anniversary of Dr. Mookerjee was a special occasion at the 11, Ahoka Road office since from this day the new president had decided to start work. Party veteran Kushabahau Thakre, former party president Jana Krishnamurthi, senior leaders of the party and several ministers had assembled for the occasion. The function began with mass singing of Vande Mataram.
Calling upon all BJP workers to think in terms of the nation alone, Shri Naidu recalled the speech delivered by Dr Mookerjee at the first convention of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in Delhi on October 1951 on the occasion of his starting party work as the president and described the ideological mentor of the BJP and the BJS as a “die-hard nationalist” apart from being an educationist, a Parliamentarian and a humanist.
Asking partymen to rededicate themselves for the attainment of the objectives set by the party since 1951, Shri Naidu emphatically declared that “the BJP is not apologetic about its ideology and its agenda such as the uniform civil code, Article 370 and the temple for Lord Shri Rama” at Ayodhya.
He said that the Party was bound by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) agenda in governance and committed to “coalition dharma”.
Referring to media reports about certain “hard-liners” being made party leaders in recent days, Shri Naidu emphatically declared that there were “no hard-liners or soft-liners in the BJP, all are BJP-liners”.
He called upon workers to emulate Dr. Mookerjee's ideal of “nation first, party next and self last”. He said that the real tribute to Dr. Mookerjee would be to work for the completion of the unfinished agenda of the party He admitted that the BJP had not yet reached to certain sections of the people.
The party cadres should strive for reaching out to those sections and make the BJP a “mini Bharat”.
Earlier, Shri Kushabhau Thakre, one of the senior-most and respected leader of the party recalled the initial days of the Jana Sangh and said that that Dr. Mookerjee had promised to the Praja Prishad of Jammu that the Bharatiya Jana Sangh would join in their struggle for the cause of unity and integrity of the State of Jammu and Kashmir for which they were sacrificing their lives.
(The allusion was to the killings by the J&K Police of Praja Parishad satyagrahis who were being shot for trying to hoist Indian national flags on police stations and other government offices).
Shri Thakre said that the celebration of the birth anniversary of Dr. Mukherjee was not a mere formality. The celebration was a reminder to party workers that the agenda set during the time of Dr. Mookherjee.
Shri Thakre in this connection referred to the democratic spirit demonstrated by Dr. Mookerjee at the Kanpur session of the party when he said that at Jammu he had “committed the party” to join the struggle for total integration of the State with the rest of the country without consulting anyone. The Party was free to overturn this “commitment”, he had said.
Followed by Shri Thakre Shri Venkaiah Naidu garlanded a bust of Dr, Mookerjee. All leaders and workers present followed suit.
Shri Naidu thereafter planted a
sappling at the “Vriksharopan” ceremony organised by the Bharatiya Janata
Yuva Morcha in the 11, Ashok Road premises.
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