Author: M Venkaiah Naidu
Publication: The Times Of India
Date: December 21, 2002
Most state elections are fought
on the performance of the government, the quality of leadership and local
issues. But the Gujarat elections acquired national importance because
of the systematic and malicious campaign against the people of Gujarat,
the BJP and Narendra Modi by the Congress, the media and the pseudo-secularists
within the state, the country and outside it.
The thrust of the campaign was:
Gujarat means riots, murder, rape and looting, Hindus are communal; the
BJP and Narendra Modi are villains. The Congress's Gujarat unit president
even went to the US and told the Senate Sub-committee on Religion that
the Congress would invite its members to Gujarat after it won the elections
to investigate what had happened in the state. The Congress and the Election
Commission also started a no-holds barred campaign to postpone the elections.
The BJP, for its part, projected
the performance of the Keshubhai Patel and Narendra Modi governments. Security
was also an important issue for us because of our suspicion that outside
forces were involved in Godhra, even if the actual act was carried out
by local people, and the definite Pakistani hand in Akshardham. We also
said Hindu-bashing should end; the approach should be "justice for all,
appeasement of none".
Indeed, this became the wider debate
because the Congress responded by saying security was not an issue. When
the Congress-PDP government released prisoners in Jammu and Kashmir around
the same time, and we criticised it, the Congress began to realise that
their negative campaign in Gujarat could boomerang on them. So the Congress
adopted soft Hindutva. But despite all its tricks, the intensive campaign
by Sonia Gandhi and the deployment of 14 chief ministers' the Congress
lost heavily. The fatwa or appeal issued by the Muslim clerics recoiled
on the Congress.
And that is why the Gujarat elections
are a turning point: When you push someone into a corner, you are bound
to get a reaction. The cumulative impact of the Congress stand on Gujarat,
NCERT textbooks, anti-conversion law and population control produced a
reaction in these elections and demonstrated what the people really want.
The Gujarat elections have provoked a national debate on all these issues
and will set the tone for the next set of assembly elections. The debate
will focus both on the performance of the state governments and the difference
between our cultural nationalism and the double standards of the pseudo-secularists.
You can't have progress without
peace and peace without strong action against the terrorists for which
you need stringent laws and our approach of "justice for all, appeasement
of none".
Take, for instance, conversions:
They cause social tension and mutual distrust. Take the attitude that if
Hindus do something, that should be condemned, but if Muslims do it, it
should be overlooked. Or that if the VHP says something, that is wrong,
but if the Imam of the Jama Masjid says something, that is OK. A film or
a book that offends Hindus is alright, but one that offends Muslims must
be banned. This discrimination won't be tolerated anymore. If Godhra had
been adequately condemned, there would have been no reaction. I am not
saying the reaction was good, both were equally condemnable. But don't
forget that in the post-Godhra riots, both communities were affected. It
was not one-sided; of course, the population on one side was more.
We must stop thinking in terms of
majority and minority. The majority will take care of the minorities; the
minorities, in turn, must respect the majority. There must be give and
take and mutual respect. No government can expect to leave out a section
of the people and rule. The minorities have an equal place in India; indeed,
it is not the minorities who are at fault, but the pseudo-secularists who
want to consolidate their vote banks.
The sentiments of all communities
must be respected and that there should be no discrimination on the basis
of religion, if there is to be rule of law. Hindu-bashing must end. This
is the wider debate on cultural nationalism in the Country today, thanks
to Gujarat, and the Congress must introduce some correctives in its soft
Hindutva policy.
People keep saying that after Gujarat,
the VHP will make all sorts of claims, but they have not demanded anything.
However, the BJP does not agree with everything the VHP says. The other
day, Pravin Togadia said that the position of Muslims in India would be
the same as that of Hindus in Pakistan. We don't agree, because we don't
believe in a theocratic state. We don't compare ourselves to Pakistan where
Hindus are second class citizens. We are a Hindu nation, but we will never
be a Hindu state. What we say is accept our concept of cultural nationalism
and we will give you peace, prosperity and development.
(As told to Smita Gupta)
