archive: Backing sedition Marxist style
Backing sedition Marxist style
Virendra Kapoor
The Sunday Afternoon Despatch and Courier
July 18, 1999
Title: Backing sedition Marxist style
Author: Virendra Kapoor
Publication: The Sunday Afternoon Despatch and Courier
Date: July 18, 1999
Now it can be told. Last month the West Bengal government made a
great to-do about the ministry of external affairs not clearing the
name of famous Bengali author Sunil Gangopadhyay for the trip to Dhaka
on the Inaugural Calcutta-Dhaka bus journey. The state chief
minister, Jyoti Basu, called the Vajpayee government 'uncivilised and
barbaric' while his ministerial colleagues threatened to boycott all
central functions till the BJP-led coalition was In power In New
Delhi.
Basu himself In a display of rank had manners breached the cast-iron
protocol and refused to welcome Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
when he landed at Dhaka. West Bengal home minister and number two In
the government, Budhhadev Bhattachraya, led a vicious campaign against
the Centre while the celebrated writer Mahashweta Devi refused to make
the trip to Dhaka In a show of solidarity with Gangopadhyay.
However, from Basu down to Devi everyone else had erred grievously In
jumping to conclusions about the Centre's alleged bias against the
self-proclaimed campaign of "Bengali Identity and language", the
reason Gangopadhyay gave for his exclusion from the famous bus
journey. The real reason for dropping Gangopadhyay was far more
serious and rooted not In prejudice but an objective reading of his
pronouncements.
The MEA balked at clearing his name for the famous journey,
Inaugurated jointly by Vajpayee and Sheikh Hasina In Dhaka, after a
careful perusal of Gangopadhyay's public pronouncements. In recent
Interviews to the Bangladeshi press he had asserted that India was
able to hold on to both "Kashmir and Assam at gun point". He was
quoted as having told his Interviewers that India should give up
Kashmir and let It unite with the Pakistan-held Kashmir. As for
Assam, it too could unite with Bangladesh once the 'Indian army of
occupation' was withdrawn from the state. The MEA did not want to
patronise an author who advocated such seditious views.
Nonetheless, the West Bengal chief minister, not caring to acquaint
himself with the facts, wrote a stinking letter of protest to the
prime minister against the exclusion of Gangopadhyay. Basu had egg on
his face when the Centre responded with a sheaf of seditious saying of
the author so dear to him. Now, he blames his home minister for
having misled him. Gangopadhyay, some call him the Bengali
counterpart of the Shiv Sena boss Bal Thackeray, has been rendered
speechless by the Centre's quiet marshalling of his public
pronouncements.
Only empty threats
Former ministers in the Vajpayee government, Madan Lal Khurana, and
Sushma Swaraj, are on record that they will not contest the
forthcoming parliamentary election. But you can bet your last penny
that they will. And from their old constituencies of Sadar and South
Delhi respectively. No one in the BJP itself takes their threat not
to contest the poll seriously. Further proof of their intent was
available last week when Khurana turned down an invitation from an
association of NRIs to visit Canada and Swaraj excused herself from
attending an urgent meeting in connection with the BJP's media
campaign on grounds of her occupation with her constituents. Keen to
contest the poll, Swaraj nonetheless wants the face-saver of an appeal
from Vajpayee to do so.
Tara Singh for BJP
The grand doyenne of the Indian advertising world, Tara Singh, is the
chosen one to direct the BJP's media campaign in the ensuing
parliamentary polls. Singh, the first woman to set up her own
advertising agency after she broke away from the Clarion Advertising
Co., now leads a retired life in the capital She had informally helped
the BJP in the last couple of elections but is now ready to devote her
considerable professional expertise to hone the post-Kargil 'Atal is
Atal' campaign of the party.
Fall-out of murder
Former President S. D. Sharma's close relation, Venod Sharma, is
unhappy that he was made to resign as the chief of Chandigarh Congress
following the involvement of his son In the Jessica Lal murder case
whereas Kerala Congress leader P. J. Kurien continues as party
secretary despite being named as a suspect In a rape case.
The fact that he was a Christian, It Is whispered In AICC circles, has
helped Kurien stave off disciplinary action. Prior to the arraignment
of his son In the high-profile murder, Sharma was all set to contest
the Chandigarh parliamentary scat.
Now, following his removal as the local party chief, he stands no
chance of being given the party ticket. That leaves two contenders
for the party ticket, former MP Pawan Bansal, and the president of the
National Students Union of India, Manish Tiwari.
With Bansal and Sharma at logger heads, the matter has now thrown his
weight behind Tiwari in his quest for party nomination for the ensuing
parliamentary poll.
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