HVK Archives: Rath Yatra will help propel BJP to power
Rath Yatra will help propel BJP to power - The Observer
Observer Political Bureau
()
16 July 1997
Title: 'Rath Yatra will help propel BJP to power'
Author: Observer Political Bureau
Publication: The Observer
Date: July 16, 1997
BJP president Lal Krishna Advani's apolitical Swarn Jayanti Rath Yatra will
propel the BJP into power at the Centre by helping it annexe new
territories. This claim was made by the BJP's four general secretaries who
handled four different legs of Advani's two-month long Yatra across the
country.
Addressing a joint press conference to mark the culmination of the Yatra on
Tuesday, the four general secretaries - M Venkaiah Naidu, Pramod Mahajan,
Sushma Swaraj and K N Govindacharya - claimed that the Yatra was a
phenomenal success - even in areas where the BJP is traditionally weak,
i.e. Orissa and West Bengal in terms of the enthusiastic response of the
people cutting across caste and class barriers.
These two states, Ms Sushma Swaraj said, will be among the new areas which
will add to the BJP's overall strength in the next general election to
enable the party to form a Government on its own.
If for Venkaiah Naidu the Yatra was an education in the country's recent
history and the struggle of freedom fighters against the Colonial British
rule, for Pramod Mahajan the response of the people to Swarn Jayanti Rath
Yatra was more than any of the five Yatras the BJP undertook in the past
seven years.
This, despite the absence of any emotional issue or direct linkage of any
contemporary political issue, notwithstanding the dramatic developments
within the ruling United Front coalition, only shows the "growing support
to the BJP as a political entity across the country," 1>ramod Mahajan said.
Mr Govindacharya, who was Advani's co-traveller on the Swarn Jayanti Rath
in its last leg of journey from Patna to New Delhi, reeled off statistics
to say that Mr Advani had successfully undertaken one of the biggest mass
contact programmes ever by reaching out to four lakh people every day, for
the past 59 days.
Mr Advani made a triumphant entry into Delhi from Tikri border on Tuesday
afternoon and was accorded a tumultuous welcome by Delhi Pradesh BJP, which
had lined up a massive ceremonial show to greet their Hero's arrival. The
Swarn Jayanti Rath entered the city at 1630 hours amidst tight security
even as supporters who had gathered at the venue in large numbers shouted
'Jai Shri Ram' and 'vande mataram'.
Addressing the gathering, the BJP president described the response to his
Yatra across the country as "unprecedented." A helicopter showered flower
petals on the entourage as the Delhi chief minister honoured Mr Advani with
a crown.
A large number of cars, tempos and other vehicles followed the rath as it
wended its way through the main thoroughfares of the city to the historic
Red Fort, where he was scheduled to address a public meeting later in the
evening.
The meeting will also be ad dressed by leader of the Opposition in Lok
Sabha Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Present at Delhi's border were state chief
minister Sahib Singh Verma, former chief minister Madan Lal Khurana, the
four general secretaries, and senior party leaders.
"July 15, 1997, which marks the conclusion of the Swarn Jayanti Rath Yatra
by Bharatiya Janata Party president L K Advani, will be recorded as a
gold-lettered day in the life of our party," said the four general
secretaries in a joint statement issued by them. This was released to
newsmen earlier in the day at the BJP headquarters on Ashok Road. Shortly
thereafter, the general secretaries left for the Tikri border to receive Mr
Advani.
The political fallout of the Yatra, as the foursome saw it, was that "it
galvanized the entire party machinery and will no doubt stand the party in
good stead whenever the parliamentary elections are held, a prospect that
seems closer with each passing day."
The phenomenal increase in the support for the party was also due to the
"murky and manipulative politicking in the Congress and the UF camps," they
said, adding that the response to the Yatra even in non-BJP-ruled states
was tremendous, indicating an "yearning among the people for a change."
Mr Naidu said the Government had "woken up only on account of the Yatra"
undertaken by Mr Advani as it had started a national debate among the
people regarding the value of freedom and national reconstruction.
He said there was immense response in the Southern states, where the BJP
was yet to establish itself as a force in the political arena and was
confident that this Yatra had given the much needed boost to the party.
"Without this Yatra, the golden jubilee year of Independence would have
gone unnoticed," observed Sushma Swaraj, adding that NRIs were celebrating
the occasion in a big way. Ms Swaraj, who recently visited the United
States and the UK as a member of a parliamentary delegation to study ethics
of parliamentary practice, said Indian ambassador in US Naresh Chandra
informed the delegation that the Government had not even sent the logo (of
the 50th year of Independence) to the Indian mission.
Comparing the Ram Rath yatra of 1990 and the present one, general secretary
Pramod Mahajan, who had accompanied Mr Advani on both the Yatras, said:
"This Yatra, the fifth one by the BJP leaders, was different in that it was
not just apolitical yatra. The response to this Yatra also showed how the
party had grown in stature in the last seven years."
Mr Mahajan said while the 1990 Yatra had brought down the V P Singh
Government, the present one was undertaken to mobilise public opinion
against the prevailing corruption, casteism and communalism and dishonesty
in the daily lives of the people. He said it was the "longest, largest and
widest-ever mass contact and mass education campaign undertaken by any
political party since 1947."
Mr Govindacharya said the participation of the youth was immense in the
Yatra and "this was a good sign for the future of the party." The four
general secretaries said the response in Orissa and West Bengal was
tremendous and that specially in Bengal, the people, cutting across all age
groups, had turned out in large numbers to greet Mr Advani.
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