The Hindu : Front Page : Preserve `Hindu ethos': Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004

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Preserve `Hindu ethos': Advani

By Neena Vyas

RANCHI, NOV. 24. A call to "preserve the Hindu ethos" and "prevent" the Congress, the Communists and other political forces from "erasing the Hindu ethos and obfuscating the Hindu identity of our culture and civilisation" was made by the Bharatiya Janata Party president, L.K. Advani, at the party's national executive committee meeting here today.

He dwelt at some length on the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, and the controversy over his remarks at the party's National Council session earlier in New Delhi on the Ayodhya issue to drive home the point that "anti-Hindu forces" had "jolted Hindu society". He reiterated what he has often said: "India is secular principally because of its Hindu ethos."

Mr. Advani's eight-page address — his first to a national executive meeting after taking over as party president — left no one in doubt that while the BJP will be taking up issues relating to governance, it remains firmly committed to Hindutva. He even referred to the party's espousal of V.D. Savarkar and the `tiranga yatra' as evidence of the party's firm commitment to its ideology, although he did not mention the word Hindutva.

Mr. Advani's address comes soon after he participated at the Haridwar working committee meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on November 5 and 6, where leaders of RSS affiliates such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad stayed away objecting to Mr. Advani's presence.

`Politics of vendetta'

Mr. Advani said today that the "politics of vendetta, confrontation and one-upmanship and social divisiveness that had marred society in Tamil Nadu in recent times" was one of the two factors responsible for the "shocking turn of events" leading to the arrest of the Kanchi seer. The second factor, he said, was "the general climate of pseudo-secularism in our country" in which "maligning of the Hindu faith" had become "the sole criterion of one's commitment to secularism." He strongly criticised the "two principal parties in the State [of Tamil Nadu]" and "all-anti-Hindu forces" for the "unprecedented" event of the arrest of the "spiritual leader" in a criminal case.

Then he raised several questions — Why did some Ministers in 1994 apologise for raiding a Muslim seminary in Uttar Pradesh when the Intelligence Bureau had conducted the raids to nab ISI-backed terrorists? Why was it considered wrong to raise voice against fraudulent religious conversions? What would happen if a Central Minister were to say publicly that he was ashamed of being a Muslim or Christian?

`Jungle raj in Bihar'

The second subject of focus in Mr. Advani's address was the coming Assembly election in Bihar and Jharkhand. He said that the "battle in Bihar" would be for the "emancipation" of the State "from 15 years of jungle raj." He gave more than an indication that the BJP's campaign in Jharkhand would be to tell the people that not to vote the BJP back to power would be to invite a "reign of terror", "social strife", "criminalisation of governance" and "unlimited corruption".

In Bihar, the BJP's campaign would be to "liberate" the State from "the reign of Asuri [evil] forces." He said the Communists and others who were supporting the Rashtriya Janata Dal were partners in the ``crime of pauperising Bihar.''

The target ``obviously is'' the Rabri Devi Government and the BJP, mauled by its recent electoral reverses in the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra elections, would use all the political weapons at its disposal to defeat the ruling party.

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