Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 5, 2006
Leader of Opposition and senior BJP leader
LK Advani said on Tuesday that if the Congress shuns minorityism in politics
and governance, it would set a firm foundation of cooperation with the BJP
making common cause with the Congress.
Endorsing Congress president Sonia Gandhi's
veiled criticism of Left parties for "communalising" the country's
foreign policy in a signed article in the party's mouthpiece, Sandesh, Mr
Advani said, "No Indian can disagree with this view. But at the same
time, we urge the Congress president and her party to introspect on whether
it was wrong to communalise foreign policy, but right to communalise domestic
policy."
Mr Advani was addressing a joint Press conference
with party president Rajnath Singh before embarking on an intensive five-week
twin Bharat Suraksha Yatra beginning from April 6.
Mr Advani would begin his yatra on Ramnavami
from Rajkot after offering prayers at the Dwarakadheesh temple and paying
homage to father of nation Mahatma Gandhi at his birthplace in Porbander.
This is the sixth yatra in Mr Advani's political career.
Rajnath Singh's yatra will hit the road from
Bhubaneshwar after paying obeisance to Lord Jagannath at Puri on the same
day.
"A firm foundation will have to be laid
for the two principal national parties in India's bipolar polity, BJP and
Congress, to make common cause in a very wide area of politics and governance,"
said Mr Advani, putting a condition that the Congress should honestly reverse
its politics of minorityism.
"Minorityism of Congress is bad and will
hurt minorities also. I hold the Congress guilty of communalising domestic
politics," he said.
While asserting that the BJP was not against
minorities, Mr Advani warned that if unchecked, the "politics of minorityism"
will prove a disaster for the Indian nation. "Far from helping the minorities,
it actually undermines their development and well-being," he added.
Categorically dismissing the apprehensions
of violence during the twin yatras, Mr Advani said, "Those who propagate
such theories are only interested in creating fear in the minds of the minorities
to get their votes."
The yatra, he said, was "the performance
of a political party's duty to educate the public on an issue about which
it strongly feels".
Asked about the Ayodhya issue over which he
had undertaken his first yatra, Mr Advani said that Ram's importance in his
life and politics was clear from the fact that the programme was being launched
on Ram Navami day. He said the BJP was in favour of the construction of the
Ram temple either through a court order or consensus. "However, if it
is done through consensus, it will be permanent and help towards social unity,"
he added.
Mr Advani downplayed the VHP's criticism of
the yatra, saying, "some people don't agree with a certain viewpoint."
The yatra would highlight a five-fold message-
safeguarding national security, defending national unity, rescuing governance,
saving parliamentary democracy and protecting the economic security of the
'Aam Aadmi' (common man), farmers and poor.
Comparing the BJP's rise to power to the resurrection
of Christ, Mr Advani said that the BJP was crucified and resurrected quite
like Jesus Christ. "We were crucified on Friday, April 4, 1980, and we
resurrected ourselves on April 6, the day of resurrection," he said.
Mr Advani thanked Home Minister Shivraj Patil
for his advice of having a bullet proof van, but said, "people in public
life who speak against terrorism, as BJP people do, will have security threats,
but I'm grateful to the Government for their concern."
