The Hindu : National : We are for one country, one Constitution, says Advani

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Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008
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We are for one country, one Constitution, says Advani

Neena Vyas

L.K. Advani

NEW DELHI: Breaking his silence on the violent incidents in Maharashtra, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani said here on Monday that the Bharatiya Janata Party stood firmly behind the concept of India as one country, with one Constitution and one flag.

Party founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee had made a sacrifice with his life for this very principle of one Prime Minister, one Constitution and one flag for the entire country, the BJP leader pointed out.

“The Constitution gives the right to every citizen to live and work in any part of India. We cannot accept what is happening in Mumbai. It weakens our country’s unity and is against the Constitution,” Mr. Advani said after a function where he released a book on BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya.

A weakened rural economy with no prospects of jobs for the youth led to migration to big cities where infrastructures were collapsing. Creation of jobs in the rural areas needed to be addressed. But that could not be used to undermine the basic concept of one India in which all citizens had the right to settle down anywhere and find work, he said.

Mr. Advani did not say anything directly about the Shiv Sena, whose chief Uddhav Thackeray recently joined his cousin Raj Thackeray in objecting to non-Maharashtrians “invading” Mumbai and bagging jobs that he said should go to Maharashtrians.

The Sena reportedly warned that it would not allow non-Maharashtrians to find employment in the major airport modernisation project in Mumbai.

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