Presidential address at Mahaadhvieshan

BJP shaped contemporary India: L K Advani

In his inspiring address to the Mahaadhiveshan (28-30 December, 2005) as a part of the rajat jayanti celebrations of the BJP at Mumbai, BJP President Shri Lal Krishna Advani dwelt at length on the ideology and principles that had kept the party together and recounted its proud record of so many achievements in so short a time that made India proud. He gave a clarion call to party workers to oust the corrupt Congress from power and defeat the divisive forces. Here is the edited text of his speech:

Friends,

Rarely in history has an organization crossed so many pinnacles combating fierce resistance and achieved so much in so short a span of time. For everyone assembled here to observe the Silver Jubilee of the formation of Bharatiya Janata Party, this is indeed a momentous occasion. This is a moment of achievement; this is a moment of triumph; this is a moment of pride. But as we celebrate our remarkable accomplishments we must use this occasion to rededicate ourselves to the task of building a new India; we must temper our pride with humility even as we accept the challenge history has placed before us - the responsibility to lead our beloved motherland to an unparalleled status in the world.

Over the years the BJP has evolved into the instrument for India’s transformation to an egalitarian, enlightened and empowered society. We are gathered here to carry forward the strategy to unshackle India from the bondage of prejudices, to integrate its glorious past with its shining future.

Cultural Nationalism As Binding Force

Twenty-five years is a mere blip in our civilisation’s 5,000 year-old history. But the BJP’s history does not begin with its formation in 1980. We are inheritors of the great tradition, the collective memory and intellect of Bharatvarsha; we embody continuity with change. In the contemporary period, the Bharatiya Janata Party carries forward the legacy of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founded in 1951 by Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerji, one of the principal framers of the Indian Constitution and a key member of Pandit Nehru’s first Cabinet. Many of us became active in politics only in 1951, when the Jana Sangh was formed.

Vajpayee Government’s Proud Record Every Indian at home and abroad walks taller today thanks to the revolutionary policies the NDA Governments initiated. Within less than two months of assuming office the NDA Government headed by Shri A.B. Vajpayee gave the world the Pokharan surprise and made India a nuclear power. It was during the NDA years that the Information Technology revolution happened. Infrastructure development, such as the Golden Quadrilateral and North-South-East-West Corridor expressways, metalled roads linking every village under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, access to drinking water through Swajaldhara in rural areas, primary education to one and all through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, telecom connectivity—in fact, almost everything that we take for granted today—is a result of the enlightened, forward-looking commitment of our Government. If India is a preferred investment destination for Foreign Institutional Investors and MNCs and the economy is robust today, ask yourself, would it have been possible without six years of NDA rule? Just 15 years ago, American planes flew into the airport of this very city to take away gold as a collateral against loans. In a complete reversal, under our regime, the US Administration declared India as its natural ally. Unlike the present Congress-led Government, we dealt with world powers as equals not supplicants.

Bharatiya Janata Party was born in 1980, when some persons in Janata Party demanded that its erstwhile Jana Sangh members sever their links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. We outrightly rejected that demand because most of us derive our cultural moorings and nationalist convictions from the RSS. We chose to part ways with the Janata Party on this issue and remain a stakeholder in the larger Sangh Parivar.

As I have said many times earlier, India is a naturally secular society because its culture is defined by the Hindu ethos, which is quintessentially secular. It is the perversion of secularism under successive Congress regimes that the Jana Sangh and BJP stood against. It is a matter of enormous satisfaction that the people of India have recognized that the secularism-communalism debate as defined by the Congress and the Left is altogether phoney. Recently, I read a book titled ‘The World is Flat’ by well-known journalist Thomas Friedman. I quote an extract to underline this point:

“With some 150 million Muslims, India has more Muslims than Pakistan. But here is an interesting statistic from 9/11: There are no Indian Muslims that we know of in al-Qaeda and there are no Indian Muslims in America’s Guantanamo Bay post-9/11 prisons. And no Indian Muslims have been found fighting alongside Jihadis in Iraq. Why is that?

Why do we not read about Indian Muslims, who are a minority in a vast Hindu-dominated land, blaming America for all their problems and wanting to fly airplanes into the Taj Mahal or the British embassy? Lord knows Indian Muslims have their grievances about access to capital and political representation. And inter-religious violence has occasionally flared up in India with disastrous consequences. I am certain that out of 150 million Muslims in India, a few will one day find their way to Al-Qaeda. But this is not the norm. Why? The answer is context - and, in particular, the secular, free - market, democratic context of India, heavily influenced by a tradition of non-violence and Hindu tolerance.”

Setting The Agenda Of National Debate

Friends, we can rightfully congratulate ourselves today for having conclusively demonstrated the falsity of secular versus communal classification as made by the Left. We can be proud that since Independence the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and then the Bharatiya Janata Party has set the agenda of the national debate.

India’s Betrayal By UPA The irony is that the UPA Government, led by Congress, is pursuing economic policies that have slowed growth of the economy and progressively burdened the ordinary people. As I said at the Chennai meeting of the National Executive in September, those who talked of holding the hands of the ‘aam aadmi’ have forgotten the common people and are busy bestowing favours on the ‘khaas aadmi’ - rich businessmen, foreign multinationals and big financiers, those who judge India’s progress only through the Sensex. The UPA Government despite paying eloquent lip service has no real concern for the 30 percent of the people who still live below the poverty line after 50 years of Congress rule or even the 70 percent of this country that lives in its villages. The state of agriculture and allied activities continues to be a cause of deep concern. The share of agriculture in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been falling over the years but its share in total employment in the country remains high. Bulk of our people still stay in villages and depend on farming for their livelihood. It was against this background that the Tenth Five Year Plan had targeted GDP growth in this sector at an annual rate of four percent. But because of continued neglect, it has not been possible for the country to achieve it. The annual agriculture growth rate in the first three years of the Tenth Plan has averaged about one percent.

Our recent victory in Bihar in alliance with the Janata Dal (United) proves that the appeal of B-S-P (Bijli-Sadak-Pani) has begun to override the lure of casteism. Most importantly, since the BJP’s formation we have successfully made Indian polity bi-polar. India is not yet close to having a two party system. But over the last couple of decades, especially since the 1996 elections, political parties in India have got clustered around the Congress or the BJP. The magnitude of this achievement should not be lost on anyone.

BJP Has Shaped Contemporary India

The Bharatiya Janata Party is a product of innumerable struggles and incomparable sacrifices. Apart from the instances I just cited, it was the Bharatiya Janata Party that pulled India back from the brink of open caste conflict with its unifying programme of constructing a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. When divisive forces sought to dismember the intrinsic unity of the country by pitting caste against caste, we electrified India with the Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya. Personally, it was an eye-opener for me to realize through the journey that India yearned for a sense of direction in its desire to bond with its tradition in its quest for modernity. Since then I have undertaken several yatras across the length and breadth of this country. During these yatras I stressed the core issues of national integration and good governance and I am happy that these planks have now emerged as the people’s principal concerns.

Friends, unfortunately the task of building a temple appropriate to the status Bhagwan Shri Ram occupies in the heart of every Indian, remains unachieved. The BJP’s mission will not be complete till a temple befitting Bhagwan Shri Ram is built at his place of birth. Each one of us must rededicate ourselves to this mission, for Shri Ram is not just a religious icon; he is also the symbol of the Indian ethos, culture and unity. He is the personification of our concept of cultural nationalism.

UPA Policies Are Flawed

Clearly, in just 19 months, the incumbent regime led nominally by Manmohan Singh and actually by Sonia Gandhi has frittered away all the gains notched up by the Vajpayee Government.

Nation First Means Good Governance Arguably, combating corruption is only one aspect of building a strong and contented India. All other policies will have to be dovetailed under the principle of Nation First. You may rightfully ask, what does Nation First mean in practice? The BJP is committed to ushering in the era of Suraj. Good Governance is equivalent to the Ram Rajya Gandhiji dreamed of. Good Governance is the instrument by which we make Nation First a tangible reality. Suraj is not only about economic prosperity. Spurt of Sensex, ostentatious marriages, opening of casinos are not indicators of social progress. For a country of India’s diversity, Suraj must encompass social cohesion, which is why the BJP has consistently projected samarasta as an essential goal. We are the only party to have determinedly opposed the politics of vote-banks. Years ago, we gave the slogan, ‘Justice for all; appeasement to none’. That remains our motto; the BJP will cease to be a party with a difference the day it succumbs to the temptation of vote-bank politics, which is being relentlessly pursued by everybody else in their shortsighted goal to come to power.

In the neighbourhood, the Government’s inconsistent policy towards Nepal has only emboldened the Maoists to publicly resolve to destroy Indian democracy. The Chief of Bangladesh Rifles has had the audacity to come to Delhi and accuse us of masterminding blasts in their country even as they export lakhs of illegal immigrants to India and shelter separatist rebels from our North-East. Many such illegals pose a serious threat to national security since they work as part of the sleeper cells organized by Pakistan’s ISI. Out of its phony concern for secularism, the UPA Government has abandoned all effort initiated by us to deport Bangladeshi immigrants.

Instead, when the Supreme Court struck down the IMDT Act, the Prime Minister set up a Group Of Ministers Committee to examine how to introduce a pro-immigrant law under a new name.

UPA Government: Glaring Lack of Political Morality

With the kind of internal pulls, pressures, posturing and blackmailing that the UPA has experienced since its inception, nobody expected the ruling coalition to be an epitome of homogeneity. But a modicum of political morality is certainly required of any government that runs the affairs of the world’s largest democracy. Sadly, the Congress-led regime has failed even this minimal test.

Gujarat Shows The Way In this context, I would like to cite the example of Gujarat to emphasize how the BJP can hold up a model of honest government and development before the entire country. Rarely in history has a Government and its leader been so mercilessly maligned by most sections of the media, a big chunk of the political class and foreign busybodies. Overcoming such relentless, savage attacks, Shri Narendra Modi has set a shining example of a transparently honest and effective government. That the people of Gujarat enthusiastically endorse his effort to provide good governance has been repeatedly demonstrated in a series of elections in recent months. The Government of Gujarat has successfully translated people’s aspirations into reality and Shri Modi deserves unreserved compliments for his performance.

It is now universally known that not only Natwar Singh, who was removed from the Cabinet kicking and screaming, but the Congress Party itself was a non-contractual beneficiary of Saddam Hussein’s largesse. Media reports put the amount at a staggering Rs.528 crores, several times the Rs.64 crore kickback a Congress functionary is supposed to have received from Bofors. The Congress Party, which has fathered the culture of corruption in India, does not appear remotely ashamed. On the contrary, it is brazenly using official investigating agencies to try and shift the focus away from those who were the real beneficiaries. That explains the desperation to hang Natwar Singh, the mere messenger-cum-commission agent, and portray Party President Sonia Gandhi as squeaky-clean.

Smt. Sonia Gandhi, as Congress President, cannot continue to pretend she did not know her party was a beneficiary of Saddam’s oil kickbacks. Since there is a prima facie case against the party she heads, Sonia Gandhi must step down as head of the National Advisory Council. The Volcker report has only reinforced the Congress Party’s utter disregard for probity in public life. It is the responsibility of every member of the BJP to carry this shameless tale of sleaze to every corner of India and mobilize people to demand an explanation.

Oust Congress to end Corruption The BJP has always believed that the Congress and its ruling dynasty is the fountainhead of all corruption in this country. While that does not justify the actions of some of our own members in the recent scandal involving Parliamentarians, it reinforces our conviction that unless the Congress culture is uprooted lock, stock and barrel from our system, the task of combating corruption will never be accomplished. In other words, if the scourge of corruption is to be removed from our society, the Congress will have to be ousted from every lever of power. Power corrupts; Congress in power corrupts absolutely. It has been our conviction since the days of the Jana Sangh that the problem of corruption in politics stems not just from avarice and greed, as in other fields, but is directly linked also to the fact that elections are becoming costlier and costlier, and that most political parties and candidates are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the situation.

A few weeks before the Volcker Report was tabled with the UN, shocking disclosures emerged from the second volume of The Mitrokhin Archives. The publication conclusively proved that not only the Communists but also senior Congress leaders were on the payroll of the former Soviet regime. The Communists’ loyalty to the nation was always suspect for they had opposed the Quit India Movement in 1942 and supported China during the 1962 conflict. But The Mitrokhin Archive II has exposed the Congress’s so-called commitment to the nation. It has demonstrated how easily Congress leaders were made to serve the interests of a foreign power and had no qualms in selling our country’s prize secrets for a fistful of cash.

Defeat Divisive Plots

We shall continue to oppose with all our might the Congress and Left’s invidious attempts to divide the people of India by appealing to their baser instincts. We shall resist the conversion of Aligarh Muslim University into an institution virtually reserved for a particular community. We shall fight the attempt by Congress State Governments to introduce minority quotas in jobs. We shall continue our agitation against setting up Commissions exclusively aimed at promoting minority educational and political interests. We shall combat the exemption proposed for minority institutions in the matter of reservations for Dalits and Backward Classes in private colleges and universities. We shall resolutely oppose the nefarious move to reintroduce the IMDT Act in Assam by another name. We shall relentlessly resist the continuing influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and reject the attempt to classify them as hapless economic refugees.

Congressisation of Politics

These days we often hear that India’s political culture has been Congressised. It is said that even the BJP has fallen victim to Congressisation. It is necessary to reiterate that the BJP is and must remain an ideological organization. We are in politics not for the sake of power alone; we are in politics to promote a robustly nationalist, transparent and accountable political ethos.

BJP Has Made Polity Bi-Polar Indeed, the BJP’s greatest success in these years has been to make India’s polity bi-polar. Our distinct ideology and idealism has forced our opponents to club together in a desperate bid to stall our return to power. How else can we explain the hilarious spectacle of the Congress and the Left breaking bread in Delhi while stabbing each other in the back in West Bengal and Kerala? Does the Congress carry any credibility as an opposition force in these States? Everybody in these States knows they are the B-team of the Marxists. On their part, the Marxists growl in Delhi, but only threaten to bite. Everybody knows they are incapable of biting. The only principle that guides their domestic politics is anti-BJP-ism. The present scenario provides us with a great opportunity to grow outside the BJP’s traditional areas. The South and the East shall soon emerge as our party’s growth points. We must resolve at this Session to work tirelessly to make the BJP omnipresent in India including States where it has so far been unable to establish a firm foothold. We must put our best foot forward in the forthcoming elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and prioritise the party’s forward movement in these States.

The Congress Party resorted to foul tactics to pull down a BJP-led Government in Goa and installed its own illegitimate government there. In Jharkhand it went a step further. It tried to annul people’s verdict and convert the loser into a winner. In Bihar, it threw all scruples to the winds and got a newly elected Assembly dissolved because the people had refused to give a new mandate to a universally discredited regime, in which the Congress was a partner, that had brought the State under ‘jungle raj’.

The point to note is that in all three States—Goa, Jharkhand and Bihar—the UPA Government used pliant governors as its henchmen to murder democracy. In Jharkhand democracy was rescued only by judicial intervention. In Bihar the Supreme Court rightly held the dissolution of the State Assembly unconstitutional.

Bihar Boosts Coalition Dharma

The BJP is committed to reverse all measures initiated by the UPA to dilute India’s security when it returns to power. Our stunning victory in the Bihar elections shows the people are disgusted with the misrule of Congress and its allies. The Bihar result heralds the NDA’s impending return to the nation’s helm. We have to prepare for this inevitability for the UPA Government may collapse earlier than expected on account of its inherent internal contradictions. Friends, the people of India must not find us wanting when that happens.

Just 20 years after the Janata Party experiment collapsed, it was the BJP that haded the anti-congress formation in power

Check Population, Preserve Environment

The BJP must continue to set the nation’s agenda in the years to come by providing Good Governance in all States where we are in power, singly or in alliance. We must set exacting standards for ourselves so that people across the country are convinced that only the BJP can lead India to its magnificent destiny. It is a fact that unless our massive population growth is curbed, the fruits of development shall continue to get dissipated. We shall end up running harder and harder to stay in the same place. It is a disturbing reality that in 25 years, India will overtake China to acquire the dubious distinction of being the world’s most populous country. Because of the excesses committed during the Emergency, population control became an unfashionable term and no political party has had the courage to deal with this issue upfront. But we cannot bury our head in the sands of time for ever. At least the BJP must set an example where it is in power and pursue norms that gain national acceptability.

Magnificent Future Ahead

Friends, at 25 a person graduates to grahastha from brahmacharya. Grahastha means acceptance of responsibilities, it means maturity. We in the BJP are also making this transition with the Mumbai Mahadhiveshan. We have to reverse the distressing descent of some members into the disreputable and corrupt Congress culture. Admittedly, their numbers are minuscule. But unless we resolve to stop this tendency altogether we will lose our proud claim to being a party with a difference. The BJP has a glorious past. But a magnificent future awaits us. We must seize the moment with all the conviction and passion at our command. We are the nation’s instrument for transformation to a Great Power. We cannot afford to disappoint our one billion people.

Bharat Mata ki Jai! Vande Mataram!