BJP set for a return to Hindu chauvinist ideology By Deepshikha Ghosh, Indo-Asian News Service
Panaji (Goa), Apr 13 (IANS) Four years after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) eschewed Hindu radicalism to broaden its appeal and seize power in New Delhi, it seems to be returning to its hardline nationalist ideology known as Hindutva. As top BJP leaders gathered here for a stock-taking session rejected calls to sack Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the party made a U-turn on the political line it adopted in 1998 when Vajpayee came to power at the head of a multi-party coalition. At that time, the BJP agreed to give up its pro-Hindu agenda so as to be acceptable to many allies who did not share its Hindu supremacist ideology. But the party's rejection of several allies' demand to replace Modi -- widely blamed for the sectarian violence in Gujarat since February-end -- virtually confirmed it had decided to put all its eggs in the Hindu nationalist basket. "Instead of accepting his resignation, the national executive advises him to seek dissolution of the assembly, go to the people and seek their verdict," said the party resolution adopted late Friday. "In a democracy there is only one way to put the issue, and the calumny, to rest -- the people are the ultimate arbiters and so the people of Gujarat are the ones who can and must decide." Vajpayee himself indicated the radical shift in the BJP's stance in his speech at a public rally here in which he attacked Islamic fundamentalism and virtually justified the Gujarat backlash that has claimed nearly 830 lives. Eight days after he told Muslim survivors in strife-torn Gujarat that he was shamed by the violence, Vajpayee blamed the largely anti-Muslim carnage on the torching of a train by suspected Muslims February 27 that killed 58 passengers, mostly supporters of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). "It is time for the party to return to Hindutva (Hindu nationalist ideology)," top BJP leader and Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi told reporters Saturday on the sidelines of the three-day BJP meet that began a day earlier. Joshi, considered to be next only to Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani within the party, was voicing the sentiment of a large section that blames the BJP's recent electoral reverses on a dilution of its Hindutva ideology. The BJP was routed in four states February, losing power in three, including the politically key state of Uttar Pradesh. In March it was trounced in municipal elections in the national capital that it had ruled for five years. Its waning popularity, party leaders say, has plunged the BJP into a deep identity crisis. The hardliners are upset that Vajpayee refused to allow the VHP, a long-time BJP associate, to carry out religious ceremonies near the site of the razed 16th-century Babri mosque at Ayodhya. The last straw, insiders say, came when the opposition -- led by the Congress party that has been winning state elections just as the BJP has been losing them -- and some Vajpayee allies demanded Modi's removal. The Hindu hardliners seem to have won the battle against voices of caution led by Consumers Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Shanta Kumar against returning to a communally divisive agenda. Said former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma: "Whatever is happening in Gujarat is not good for the party's image." The BJP decision is immediately a challenge to its several allies, including the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the biggest group propping Vajpayee. They would now have to quickly decide whether to push the issue and risk the fall of the Vajpayee government or backtrack and allow the BJP its way. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
