The Hindu : Cong. lends cautious support to EC ban on VHP yatra

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 15, 2002

National

National

Cong. lends cautious support to EC ban on VHP yatra

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 14. The Congress party lent cautious support to the Election Commission's order banning the VHP yatra from Godhra. The AICC leadership of the party said the EC was merely discharging his constitutional responsibility. ``It is the Election Commission's responsibility to ensure that elections are held in an atmosphere free of tension and communal violence, and anything coming in the way of it should be immediately rectified,'' said the AICC general secretary, Ambica Soni.

Senior party leaders deliberately refrained from taking sides, but lent tacit support to the decision. ``The Election Commission must take whatever necessary steps they deem fit,'' said Ms. Soni.

The party also put the onus of implementing the Election Commission's order on the State Government. ``It is the Constitutional duty of the State Government to implement the order, besides, the yatra was stopped on the basis of the recommendation made by the Gujarat Home Secretary''.

However, privately, senior Congress leaders expressed the fear that the decision to ban the VHP yatra could allow the BJP-VHP combine to portray itself as a martyr and help them earn sympathy. ``It would have been better if the EC had banned all religious yatras,'' said a CWC member.

The party continued to train its guns on the saffron combine and accused it of trying to create communal trouble in the run-up to the polls.

Mr. Kamalnath, the AICC general secretary in-charge of Gujarat, came down heavily on the BJP_VHP combine accusing it of deliberately stoking communal passions, in the run-up to the polls. He said it had become a habit with the Sangh Parivar to describe everything that did not suit their interests as illegal or unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, both the Congress and the BJP continued their cat-and-mouse games with both sides delaying the release of the list of their party candidates. Mr. Kamalnath admitted this evening that his party was ready with its first list of 75 candidates, but that the party would wait for the BJP to release its list before doing so itself.

Caution is the buzzword that marks the Congress party's strategy.

Its poll strategists believe that contest will be a close one with only a handful of seats separating the two parties. An independent poll, commissioned by the party, gives it a slender lead over the BJP.

Conscious of the BJP's attempt to paint its as an anti-Hindu party, the Congress was forced to include the question of whether the people of Gujarat saw it as an anti-Hindu party, in the survey.

The Congress appears to be extra cautious this time by limiting the number of Muslim candidates to 9, the same number that were fielded during the last elections.

The party has also decided to drop 10 to 12 of its sitting MLAs. The party is also confident of sewing up its electoral

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National