HVK Archives: Clear - headed Advani
Clear - headed Advani - The Free Press Journal
Editorial
()
December 18, 1998
Title: Clear - headed Advani
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: December 18, 1998
Following Union Home Minister L. K. Advani's categorical
assurance in Parliament that no one shall be allowed to suffer
due to his religious persuasion the ill-motivated campaign of
vilification against him by interested elements must cease.
Advani's clear-headed enunciation of the Government's position
on the sensitive issue should put paid to the calumners who were
falsely accusing the BJP administration of having incited
atrocities against the minorities. Advani's words bear
repetition: " Even if one citizen in the country feels unsafe,
it would mean that there has been laxity on the part of the
Government in some way or the other. I am concerned that no
citizen irrespective of the fact if he belongs to the minority
or not should feel unsafe. The Government will not tolerate
injustice against anyone." There could not have been a more
forthright denunciation of the propaganda unleashed by certain
groups inimical towards the BJP that the Vajpayee-led coalition
was out to harass, nay, persecute minorities.
Indeed, Advani's reply to the 10-hour debate in she Lok Sabha on
alleged atrocities on minorities in different parts of the
country was remarkable for lot more besides his categorical
commitment to protect all citizens regardless of their religious
faith. The Home Minister again reiterated that the demolition of
the disputed structure in Ayodhya was not on the cards on
December 6, 1992. It was a setback for him 'personally' and for
'my party.' Advani's assertion on the demolition in Ayodhya
might evoke anger and derision in the fundamentalist sections
among both the Hindus and the Muslims, but there is no denying
its veracity.
For the destruction of the disputed structure harmed the cause
of both Advani and the BJP. Buttressing his assertion, Advani
read out from a newspaper article he had written soon after the
demolition. In the article inter alia Advani said that 'this
year's kar sewa had turned out to be the most depressing in my
life... but I seldom felt as dejected and downcast..."
Unfortunately, neither the sincere manner in which he enunciated
his views nor his cold logic would convince the professional
secularists who must continue to paint him as an extremist in
order to stay in business.
Even on the oft-repeated charge that the BJP propagated the
divisive one nation, one culture, one people philosophy, the
Union Home Minister did well to dispel some myths. He
approvingly quoted from Pandit Nehru's address at the 1961 AICC
session in Madurai wherein he had said that 'the feeling of one
country and one culture bound the people of India with a silken
thread.' He also quoted the Archbishop of Hyderabad who had said
in a recent interview that he was a 'Christian by religion but
Hindu by culture.' Even on the. controversy about the singing of
Vande Matram, Advani turned the tables on his traducers by
quoting from the speech of the first President, Dr Rajendra
Prasad. Dr Prasad wanted Vande Matram to be accorded the same
honour as Jana Gana Mana since it had played a stellar role in
the freedom movement. However Advani volunteered that he was
against the forced singing of Vande Matram in government-run
educational institutions.
Without wanting to rub further salt on the wounds of his critics
who had set out to exploit certain unhappy incidents in the
country for their partisan political ends, Advani rebutted the
charge that the rape of nuns in Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh was
politically motivated. Since the Christian associations had
latched on the Jhabua incident to create a sense of insecurity
among the minorities, Advani deemed it fit to release the fact-
sheet on the case submitted by the Congress-run State
Government. And much to the discomfiture of the professional
propagandists of the Christian community, half of the twenty-
four suspects in the rape case were Christians. None of the
suspects was politically involved with any group. For Advani,
the rape incident was not a Hindu-Christian affair; it was a
heinous crime and ought to be dealt with as such.
Clearly, the very section of the people who had gone to town
seeking to tar the ruling party in the anti-minority hues would
remain unconvinced by Advani's impassioned reply. For you can
convince only those' who are open to reason. The prejudiced who
had convinced themselves that the bigoted RSS Hindus were behind
the Jhabua rape of nuns would remain beyond the pale. of logic
and even facts. This should not however deter Advani from
periodically enunciating his philosophy of secularism. He did
the Government proud in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
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