Author:
Publication: The Observer
of Business and Politics
Date: October 5, 2000
The central leadership
of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is undeterred by the opposition from
within to its policy of reaching out to Muslims and other minorities.
The party's new stance
had been announced last month at the meeting of its national executive
at Nagpur. BJP parliamentarians from Gujarat and Utter Pradesh had
voiced their opposition at Sunday's meeting of the party's national executive
here.
A delegate from Gujarat
went to the extent saying that "the BJP's shift towards minorities was
one of the key factors responsible for the debacle of the party in the
municipal corporation elections."
The party, which is in
power in Gujarat, has been severely mauled in the civic polls. "A
section of BJP leaders is not happy with the party overplaying the minorities
card. They fear it would boomerang, as the traditional voters will
slowly drift to other political organisations if the BJP starts talking
only about minorities," a senior BJP leader said.
However, three top BJP
functionaries, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, home minister L K Advani
and party president Bangaru Laxman brushed aside the issue at the meeting.
They maintained that
"we will have to take all sections along with us."
Mr Advani, in a bid to
pacify angry delegates, took pains to explain the rationale behind the
Nagpur message that emphatically called upon the cadres to reach out to
the minorities.
He argued that the party
was not changing its position nor going overboard to appease any section.
As senior vice president
Jana Krishnamurthy put it: "The decision to reach out to the minorities
is not a new stand. The national executive meeting in Chennai in
December 1999 had sent out an identical message to the cadres."
Party leaders are also
failing back on the statements made by Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, a founding
member of the Jana Sangh, whose successor the BJP is.
"Upadhyaya himself exhorted
us to remember, in his presidential address at the Calicut session of the
Bharatiya Jana Sangh in December 1967, "every section of Indian society
is the flesh of our flesh and the blood of our blood," Mr Advani told the
national executive.
Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani
made it clear that the party should accommodate all sections, irrespective
of whether it stands to lose or gain.
It was explained that
in doing so, the party may lose in some areas but it could also gain in
other areas.
It was also pointed out
that since its inception 20 years ago, the BJP has never made any distinction
on lines of caste or community.
However, BJP leaders
admitted, on condition of anonymity, "that although we have been talking
about carrying all sections, the Nagpur convention was the first meeting,
where a lot of emphasis was laid on reaching out to the minorities."
