HVK Archives: Congress shedding crocodile tears over secularism: BJP
Congress shedding crocodile tears over secularism: BJP - The Observer
Observer Political Bureau
()
November 12, 1998
Title: Congress shedding crocodile tears over secularism: BJP
Author: Observer Political Bureau
Publication: The Observer
Date: November 12, 1998
The BJP on Wednesday charged the Congress with playing communal
card in every election and shedding crocodile tears for
secularism during non-election times. Pegging its charge around
Congress President Sonia Gandhi's election speech in mizoram's
Christian-dominated areas, the BJP accused the Congress of
indulging in communal activities, exemplified by the November
1984 anti-Sikh riots.
In a written statement, BJP General Secretary M Venkaiah Naidu,
said that Sonia Gandhi by alleging that "Christians are
insecure has damned her own party and once again exposed the
shallowness of Congress commitment towards secularism.
Quoting Sonia Gandhi, Naidu said that she alleged that riests
and nuns have been subjected to unspeakable atrocities=94. The
Congress President, he said, was referring to the rape of nuns
in Jhabua Madhya Pradesh, which is ruled by her own Congress. If
riests and nuns have been subjected to unspeakable atrocities"
by Congressmen in a state ruled by the Congress party, how is
the BJP responsible for it," Naidu questioned.
The rapists of Jhabua were all Congress workers and the man who
provided these Congress criminals with shelter, one Jaam Singh
Amaliyar, has been awarded with a Congress ticket to contest the
Madhya Pradesh assembly election from Pethalwad. So while in
Christian majority Mizoram the Congress President sheds
crocodile tears for "priests and nuns who have been subjected to
unspeakable atrocities" in Madhya Pradesh she rewards those
guilty of these "unspeakable atrocities," Naidu said.
The Congress President has also maintained a deliberate silence
on the brutalities perpetrated on Dalit women in Madhya Pradesh.
The "unspeakable" brutalities committed on Dalit women obviously
did not move her, Naidu said. He also took the Congress
President to task for criticising the BJP for believing India is
one nation.
"The Congress President has also mocked at the BJP's commitment
to India as 'one nation'. Obviously, like many in the West, the
Congress President does not believe that this is one nation.
Like others who would love to see India balkanised, the Congress
President subscribes to the multi-nation theory which is far
more dangerous than Mohammed Ali Jinnah's two nation theory,"
Naidu said.
The Congress President has also criticised the invocation of
Saraswati Vandana, scorning the fact that Saraswati Vandana
embodies India's cultural personally and lies at the core of
India's civilisational consciousness. This is in keeping with
the Congress history of belittling Vande Mataram to appease the
fundamentalists, Naidu said.
"Actually the Congress is a past master of vote bank politics
and appealing to the crassest sentiments of communal elements.
In the past, it has sought to influence minority votes by
suggesting that Government should pay salaries to Imams and
introducing a Bill to give reservations to so-called Dalit
Christians which would have adversely affected the interests of
dalits," the BJP General Secretary said.
"It is the same Congress which subverted the Supreme Court
judgement in the Shah Bano case to appease fundamentalists, thus
strengthening the grip of the clergy over hapless Muslim women.
It is the same Congress which opposed the raising of the
national tricolour at Hubli. And it is the same Congress that
bloodied its hands with blood of 3,000 innocent Sikh men, women
and children and then justified the anti-Sikh riots," Naidu said
to prove his charge that the Congress had been playing the
communal card as and when it suited it politically.
The BJP leader also strongly condemned the murder of a Samata
Party candidate from one of the assembly constituencies in Outer
Delhi and urged the Government to nab the culprits without loss
of time and expose the conspiracy. Then the BJP General
Secretary said that till recently the killed person was a member
of the BJP and when refused ticket joined the fray as a Samata
Party candidate.
When asked if there was any possibility of the BJP workers in
the incidents, as alleged by the victim's family, Naidu said the
killing was due to personal rivalries and the BJP was in no way
involved with the incident. "Such culture is alien to BJP. This
may be Congress culture," he said.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madanlal Khurana also
strongly condemned the incident and said that the incident, the
first of its kind in Delhi, had shamed him.
Back
Top
|
