The Hindu : 'Govt., BJP undermining secular democracy'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 18, 2003

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National

'Govt., BJP undermining secular democracy'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 17. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has charged the Vajpayee Government and the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders with engaging in a "systematic effort to undermine secular democracy" to advance the agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and facilitate the ``transformation" of the Indian Republic into a fascist ``Hindu rashtra.''

Commenting on the latest statements of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee (with regard to the Governors), the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani (on internal security) and the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi (telling a rally in Mumbai not to be ashamed of Hindutva), the CPI (M) said that buoyed by its Gujarat victory, the saffron brigade was upping its ante on all fronts.

"The process of `Modi'fication of India that we discussed earlier has been accelerated by Modi himself who urged a gathering in Mumbai not to be ashamed of Hindutva and fight its (BJP) opponents through Hindutva... Such fascist aggressiveness is matched by activities centring on inflammable communal agenda at the ground level,'' the CPI (M) politburo member, Sitaram Yechury, said in an article in the latest edition of the party organ, People's Democracy.

It said that reports showed that violence and curfew continued to rage in various parts of Gujarat and even normal events such as kite-flying contests were generating communal strife and tension.

Referring to Mr. Advani's statement, describing the internal security situation as being ``warlike,'' the article noted that he even justified curtailment of democratic rights by saying that a "democratic state need not be a soft state.'' Mr. Advani had also mentioned that democracy did not mean people could do whatever they wanted. "No originality here. Sounds pretty much the same language as that of Indira Gandhi during Emergency.''

While Mr. Vajpayee had talked of strengthening people-to-people contacts and improving relations with Pakistan, the Union Home Ministry was busy refusing entry to Pakistanis to attend international events in India. "Clearly, the Prime Minister was seeking to satisfy his imperialism masters by posing to worry about Indo-Pak. relations, while his deputy concentrates on utilising these very tensions to further the saffron communal agenda,'' the article said.

On the Prime Minister's suggestion to the Governors that they should play a more pro-active role, it said in the past this office had often been "blatantly misused" to serve the interest of the Central Government in a state where the opposition parties headed the Government. "Under this BJP-led Government, this trend has become more blatant given the fact that leading RSS personalities have been appointed as Governors in many States... the Prime Minister's exhortions, thus, are fraught with grave consequences for Centre-State relations leading to the erosion of powers and rights of the State Governments,'' it said.

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