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The Bharatiya Janata Party intends to befriend the minority
community through interaction and by allaying the suspicion
deliberately created in its psyche during the past 50 years. The
party would not take recourse to any artificial means to woo the
community but would treat them at par with any other section of
society. Once they are allowed to experience for themselves how
pleasant a company with the BJP could be for the Muslims, they
themselves would expose the negative politics of BJP-baiters.
That is how the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. Kalyan Singh,
looks at his party's relations with the minority community which
had received a rude shock during his earlier tenure in 1992 which
ended with the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
The change in the political climate of this northern State
effected by the reinstallation of Mr. Singh as Chief Minister and
the BJP's urge to capture power at the Centre have prompted the
party to adopt a cautious approach. It aims at winning over the
hearts without conceding their point on the Ayodhya issue but at
the same time ensuring that as a ruling party the BJP did not
believe in discriminating against the community as propagated by
its opponents.
Mr. Singh told The Hindu in an interview here today that for him
Muslims were full citizens of the country just as others. For
opponents of the BJP, they were mere vote banks. The fact was
gradually being realised by the community, especially by the
younger sections who were less affected by the propaganda
unleashed by anti-BJP forces.
He recalls how Muslims, individually and in groups, are coming to
see him with their problems and are going back satisfied with his
decisions. During one of his recent visits to Aligarh some old
Muslim women came to bless him for his decision to ban the sale
of lottery tickets. This had ended a nightmarish experience for
the poor, they said, and wished him and his Government a long
life. Things were changing, slowly but surely, and the difference
was quite discernible even now, he said.
Mr. Singh, who has just returned from the Bhubaneshwar meeting of
his party, was confident the BJP would increase its strength in
the coming Lok Sabha elections in U.P., irrespective of the final
picture of political alignments before the polls. The most
important factor favouring his party, according to him,- was the
people's confidence that the BJP alone could provide a stable
Government and an able and visionary Prime Minister. The BJP no
longer was a party without friends in the country's national
politics and hopes of the so-called secular parties to isolate
the BJP had been belied. This was a qualitative change in the
political scenario and would gradually give rise to a pro-BJP
wave by the voting time.
"In U.P., a triangular contest is almost a certainty, " Mr.
Kalyan Singh said. The two political formations pitted against
the BJP would be led by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj
Party, respectively, of which, as per present indications, the
BSP is likely to go it alone. The formation led by the Samajwadi
Party would also be only a one-party show. With the potential
strength of the Congress (I), Janata Dal, the two Communist
parties and Other parties like the Samajwadi Janata Party and the
Rashtriya Janata Party, being what it is, it would be sheer
dishonesty to put any weight on any of the two anti-BJP
formations. It would, therefore, be prudent to assess the
situation in relation to the SP and BSP alone, he analysed.
According to him, the BJP would have no difficulty in fighting on
two fronts simultaneously, against the SP and BSP. The political
machinations of the SP leader, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, have been
thoroughly exposed and after its climax the popularity of the BSP
is also on the wane, he felt.
Mr. Singh did not rule out an understanding between the Samajwadi
Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party even at this late stage, though
he feels that the proposition would not be that easy to translate
into reality. However, even this coming together of the two
backward class based parties would not be able to stop the onward
march of the BJP, he claimed.
The gulf created between the Scheduled Castes and Other Backward
Castes during the tenure of the former Chief Minister, Ms.
Mayawati, would be almost impossible to bridge, he said. When the
Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
was being blatantly misused by her Government, the victims were
both upper castes and backward castes. The first administrative
action he took after assuming office was to stop this misuse.
"Had I not done this, I would have done a great disservice to the
victims and my own party," he said.
The BJP, on the other hand, had been strengthened by the latest
political developments and would contest the Lok Sabha elections
in cooperation with the Samata Party and the Loktantrik Congress
Party. He looked quite happy with the performance of his
Government, saying it was functioning as a cohesive team despite
the fact that Ministers from three different denominations had
joined as its members.
The immediate impact of the Government, he said, would be
reflected by the results of the coming elections to the U.P.
Legislative Council. These elections were taking place on the
basis of an electoral college formed by rigged local bodies
elections during the tenure of Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav as Chief
Minister, he charged. The BJP had no significant representation
among the voters but it was confident of making a good show.
During the last Council elections from local bodies constituency,
his party had won only three seats and this time the performance
would be many times better, he asserted.
The Chief Minister rejected outright the allegations levelled by
the Samajwadi Party that his Government would vitiate the coming
Lok Sabha elections. "It was during my Chief Ministership in 1991
that Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav himself had won his Assembly
byelections from Jaswantnagar constituency. If I had believed in
rigging the elections, he would not have been a winner. The
Samajwadi Party allegations were, thus, completely false and
motivated," he said.
He felt there was nothing wrong in the nomination of members to
the local bodies by the Government during the elections. This was
well within the powers of the Government to make nominations.
Had it been illegal, the Election Commission would certainly have
raised objections, he added.
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