Cover Story : BHARAT SURAKSHA YATRA

Massive crowds, spontaneous response
Shri Lal Krishna Advani

By now the Bharat Suraksha Yatra has completed about 25 days of its journey. Both the Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha), Shri Lal Krishna Advani, and BJP President Shri Rajnath Singh have been attracting vast crowds. People are eager to listen to them on the issues that forced them to undertake this tortuous, tiresome yatra at this time of the season when the mercury is rising every day. Both the BJP veterans received unexpected love and affection of the people in the areas they covered. The people affirmed their affinity with the cause for which BJP had launched upon the Yatra all over the country. During the current fortnight, Shri Advani covered the States of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In between he also had a recess to campaign for BJP in the State assembly elections of Kerala and Tamilnadu. Shri Rajnath Singh went to Assam and West Bengal to give a fillip to the BJP campaign in assembly elections in those States. What was more remarkable was the response the two leaders received even in pockets where BJP has only a symbolic presence. We present a brief account of what issues both Shri Advani and Shri Rajnath Singh raised during their public meetings and interaction with the media based on reports filed by our Special Correspondents.

Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh)
Planned conversions threat to national integration
Demands ban law at State and national level

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Shri Lal Krishna Advani regretted that since the advent of UPA government at the Centre and Congress government in the state headed by chief minister Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy in May 2004, Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a big spurt in the activities of various evangelical organizations engaged in religious conversions in a systematic manner with a missionary zeal through inducements and coercive pressure.

In a statement issued at Tirupati (AP) on April 17, Shri Advani said such activities acquire an extra edge of ominousness when they are facilitated by foreign-funded organizations, ostensibly under the garb of social service for the poor and underprivileged families in society. I strongly condemn this campaign of proselytisation, which poses a grave threat to the Hindu society, at the same time, undermining national integration and social harmony between various communities.

It is distressing to know, Shri Advani said, that evangelical organizations are engaged in an open anti-Hindu propaganda, including in the holy city of Tirupati.

Shri Advani was pained at the AP government said to be toying with the idea of selling off lands belonging to various Hindu temples. In many places, the government has colluded with unscrupulous elements who have encroached upon valuable temple lands. All this is reprehensible, he said.

The BJP recognizes and accepts India’s multi-faith character. We respect the freedom of faith as a fundamental right of every citizen. I myself have great respect for Christianity and count many Christians among my good and respected friends. However, freedom of faith cannot be allowed to become a license for a sustained foreign-funded campaign for proselytisation, which has gained momentum in various states in the country in recent years. Tribals, Scheduled Castes and the poor belonging to other classes seem to be target of the proselytizers.

Sholapur (Maharashtra)
BJP demands a JPC on
farmers’ suicides

Shri Lal Krishna Advani in his statement issued at a press conference in Sholapur on April 12 said that making the Annadata asurakshit: Bharat Suraksha Yatra aims at highlighting the UPA government’s failures to extend suraksha (security) to the Annadata (farmer). This has made life asurakshit (insecure) for crores of people in rural India.

He said he was shocked to see that the President’s Address to Parliament at the start of the Budget session did not even mention the occurrence of the large-scale farmers’ suicides in several states of the country. When the Central government does not even acknowledge the existence of this problem, he asked, how can our kisans expect it to provide any solution or succour?

Shri Advani said suicide by farmers in large numbers is the clearest sign that our country is going through its greatest agrarian crisis since the Green Revolution. Repeated crop failure, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, breakdown of institutional credit, indebtedness (mostly to private usurious money-lenders) and the resultant state of extreme despair – this seems to be the sorry state of agriculture in many suicide-affected states. The other indicators of the agrarian crisis are a stagnant agricultural growth rate and speedier migration of rural population to urban areas for employment. Until a few years ago, suicides were confined to the cotton growing areas of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Now, this tragic phenomenon has spread to paddy and soya belts of Punjab and Maharashtra and groundnut growers in Kerala.

Government of khaas aadmi, not aam aadmi: One of the indicators for judging India’s overall progress is to see whether India’s ranking in the UN Human Development Index (HDR), which has been hovering in the region of 120-130 for many years, comes down to the level of developed nations in the world. The HDR is measured on the basis of parameters such as the Infant Mortality Rate, Maternal Mortality Rate, Literacy Rate, average life expectancy, etc.

It is ironic that, the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and Congress-led governments in several states have contributed a new index – Kisans’ Suicide Mortality Rate to measure rural India’s reverse development.

Shri Advani said, when Parliament reconvenes on May 10, he shall demand the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into all aspects of the grave problem of farmers’ suicides in several states in the country and recommend an effective plan of action to put an end to this national shame.

District Yavatmal (Maharashtra)

Extract of the letter sent by Shri L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha) Camp: Village Pandharkauda (Dist: Yavatmal, Maharashtra) on April 20, 2006 to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh demanding setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee on large-scale farmers’ suicides in various states.

I am writing this letter to you on a subject of utmost national importance – large-scale farmers’ suicides in various states.

In the past few years, I have read reports in the media about a large number of distressed farmers in different states committing suicide. The reports were no doubt shocking. But my travels through the villages and towns in Vidarbha and the relatively advanced districts of Maharashtra, and the Rayalaseema and Telengana regions of Andhra Pradesh, which are among the most backward in the entire country, have convinced me that the reality of large-scale farmers’ suicide is far more numbing and appalling than can be gauged from media reports in New Delhi. I also heard tales of farmers’ suicides even in Kerala, where I had gone a few days ago to participate in my party’s campaign for the ensuing election campaign. Previously, my Party colleagues have apprised me of farmers’ suicides in Punjab too.

I believe that Parliament, which is the country’s highest forum of democracy, cannot remain indifferent to the full-blown crisis of farmers’ suicides in several states. It is for this reason that I have declared in my public meetings during the Bharat Suraksha Yatra that the BJP would seek the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee on farmers’ suicides, when the Budget session re-commences on May 10.

Hyderabad (AP)
We’ve set the agenda for
the Nation in past

In a Press Statement issued at a press conference in Hyderabad on April 19, 2006 Shri L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha) said that in his long political life of 55 years, he is proud to belong to a party – both to the Bharatiya Janata Party and to its predecessor, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh – that has set the agenda for the Nation at every critical point in India’s post-independence history.

Recounting the achievements during the six years of the first stable anti-Congress coalition NDA government under the leadership of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Shri Advani said India was made a Nuclear Weapons State. This government had ensured India’s accelerated development through highway connectivity, rural roads connectivity, telephone and internet connectivity, river connectivity, and connectivity with the Indian Diaspora, all as party of the larger vision of making India a Developed Nation by 2020; Restoration of the political process in Jammu & Kashmir through free and fair elections; Formation of three new states – Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal – through an amicable and consensual process, which was for the first time in the history of the linguistic reorganization of states;

Dialogue for normalization of ties with Pakistan, after making Islamabad give a public commitment on not allowing Pakistani or Pak-controlled territory for terrorist activities aimed against India.

Shri Advani said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s silence on illegal immigrations from Bangladesh and the demand for reservation for Muslims in Government jobs is “ominous”.

The former Deputy Prime Minister appealed to all in the political establishment to honestly introspect and ask themselves whether their policies and actions squared up with the imperatives of ‘Bharat suraksha’. “I feel that all should make earnest efforts to enlarge the area of common agreement and cooperate with one another on that basis for the larger good of the nation”.

Replying to a question on the nuclear policy, he said the country should not allow itself to be dictated to. It was for India to decide on minimum nuclear deterrence. To another query, he said there was a need for a comprehensive law on conversions. In many countries, including China, conversions were banned.

Congress party’s record in AP:
Hatya, Atmahatya and Vishwasghaat

Shri Advani said that Hatya, Atmahatya and Vishwasghaat, sum up the reasons for the scale and spirit of the public response to his Suraksha Yatra. Congress party and government’s record in Andhra Pradesh have not only failed to contain hatya (killings) of innocent citizens by naxalites, but actually adopted a soft approach to the problem of left-wing extremism. Secondly, they have been shockingly insensitive to the problem of atmahatya (suicides) by farmers. Nearly 4,000 farmers in AP alone have ended their lives, unable to bear the growing distress caused by the crisis in agriculture.

Lastly, both the Congress-led government at the Centre and the Congress government in the state are guilty of vishwasghaat (betrayal) of their promise on Telangana. Indeed, this promise was the basis of the alliance between the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the 2004 parliamentary and assembly elections.

Posers to Smt. Sonia Gandhi &
Dr. Manmohan Singh on
religion-based reservations

Shri Advani expressed serious disquiet over the ominous manner in which Congress party has been trying to alter the basic spirit of the Constitution by relentlessly pushing for religion-based reservations for minorities, guided purely by considerations of vote-bank politics and not by any genuine empathy for the minorities. The Congress-run AP government’s decision to introduce 5% reservation for Muslims, the central government’s decision to reserve 50% seats in the Aligarh Muslim University (both of which have been struck down by the courts) and the aborted attempt to conduct a Muslim census (as a prelude to accepting religion-based reservations) in the Armed Forces – these are merely initial pointers to the dangerous new mindset in the Congress party.

An example of this is Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s silence when a delegation of Muslim leaders, led by Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, met him a few days ago and demanded, among other things, reservation for Muslims in jobs and educational institutions. Congress president Shrimati Sonia Gandhi also has maintained studied silence over this demand.

Shri Advani reminded that the Constituent Assembly’s Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities, Tribal and Excluded Areas headed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with a galaxy of leaders like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Maulana Azad, Dr. S.P. Mookerjee, Dr. K.M. Munshi, Purushottamdas Tandon, Pandit Govind Vallabh Pant and Gopinath Bordoloi as also Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was a special invitee. Its final report stated: “The Committee are satisfied that the minorities are themselves feel that in their own interests, no less than in the interests of the country as a whole, the statutory reservation of seats for religious minorities should be abolished.” n