bjp-l-digest Wednesday, December 10 1997 Volume 02 : Number 002
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News, Opinion, Analysis and Publications Digest
Today's Topics
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Stable govt and able PM: BJP's plank
BJP going all out to improve its tally in UP
Ashish Nandy Exposed in New York
Vajpayee most popular leader: Outlook magazine
Stable govt BJP's poll plank
BJP will contest all seats in Gujarat
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Date: Dec. 9, 1997
Source: UNI
Stable govt and able PM: BJP's plank
The Bharatiya Janata Party's election plank this time
will be a ''stable government and able prime minister'',
party vice-president Krishan Lal Sharma announced today.
He said the party is in touch with former Karnataka
chief ministers Ramakrishna Hegde and Bangarappa and
West Bengal Congress leader Mamata Banerjee for possible
tie-ups.
He, however, made it clear that any electoral alliance
will have to be finalised before the election and all
those willing to ''join hands with us should know what
the BJP stands for''.
Claiming that so far only the BJP had started its
campaign with clarity on policies and issues, he said
the United Front and the Congress were ''groping in the
dark'' over these issues. They do not know which course
to tread, he added.
Referring to the prevailing ''contradictory stand''
adopted by different UF constituents, Sharma said they
were unable to decide whether to join hands with the
Congress or not.
There are serious differences of opinion on these issues
within the UF, he claimed.
Urging all political parties to state their stand on the
Ayodhya issue, he said a stable government at the Centre
would be ''good'' for the Muslims.
As for the Congress, he said, ''We do not want any
tie-up with the Congress. Our mission is to replace the
Congress.''
Asked when the process of consultation with regional
parties and Banerjee had begun, he said, ''During the
11th Lok Sabha itself.''
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Date: December 8, 1997
Source: The Pioneer
BJP going all out to improve its tally in UP
Pioneer News Service/Lucknow
In an attempt to ensure a clean sweep in the UP Lok Sabha
seats, the BJP is going all out to improve its position in
those 22 seats, where the party lost by a wafer-thin margin
in the last election.
Announcing the party strategy to win back the lost 22
seats, the BJP spokesman, Mr Shyamnandan Singh, said this
time the emphasis would be not so much on the strongholds
as on those seats where the party got a drubbing in the
1996 election. Efforts would also be made to win the 15
seats where the BJP lost by a small margin of 5,000 votes.
The national strategy, however, would be decided at the
party working committee meeting at Bhubaneswar on December
19, 20 and 21.
Mr Singh also feels that the party will do considerably
well with the LCP, the JD and the BSP defectors on their
side.
Meanwhile, Mr Singh said this time the main issue of the
party would be stability. People are tired of all sorts of
permutations and combinations at the Centre and now they
want a stable government. According to him, no other party
except BJP can guarantee stability.
Holding the UF and the Congress responsible for thrusting
another election upon the people within a year, Mr Singh
said that the election would impose a burden of Rs 700
crore on the common man.
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From: "Kataria, Narain" <KATARN@cahill.com>
Subject: ASHISH NANDY EXPOSED IN NEW YORK
Date: Tue, 09 Dec 97 10:11:00 PST
ASHISH NANDY EXPOSED IN NEW YORK
By: Narain Kataria
On December 1, 1997, Asia Society organized "An Evening Talk" celebrating
the 50th anniversary of India's independence - India: Past, Present and
Future. The speakers were: Salman Khurshid (no show), T.N. Ninan,
Ashish Nandy, Vijaya Mehta and Shaheen Kumar.
Mr. Ashish Nandy, the notorious - ideologically stranded
leftist-columnists - mischievously highlighted differences and divisions
in Indian society and magnified them with an ulterior motive to tarnish
India's image in the eyes of Americans. Even though India is
acknowledgedly a Hindu nation, and many Americans are turning into an
Indian aficionado because of her philosophy and culture, Mr. Nandy
shamelessly postulated the hypothesis that India is a country with
multiple identities. In an attempt to belittle patriotic forces in
India, he fobbled off the Hindu surge for national recovery, which was
dodged at the time of Independence, as rabid communalism. In order to
prove his scholarship, this secular quack, without any let or hindrance,
indulged in intellectual chicanary and charlatanism with a view to deride
the creed of patriotism. His xenophobic proclivity, calculated to
denigrate nationalistic forces in India, and his singular and abject lack
of anything even remotely resembling patriotism, baffled many among the
audience. By manipulating statistics, he wanted to prove that India is
an artificial entity, a mumbo-jumbo, a conglomeration of different races
who have nothing in common. That there are thousands of castes,
sub-castes, nationalities, sub-nationalities, and hundreds of ethnic
groups. In a nutshell, he presented a negative image of India to make
his masters (who had sponsored his trip to U.S.A.) happy. His
presentation at the Asia Society, reaffirmed Lord. McCaulay's assertion
that British education in India would produce Indians, who would look
like Indians but run down Hindus and India vehemently like an Englishman.
I asked Mr. Nandy - in your talk you have successfully depicted the
darker side of India. Your talk gives us the impression as if India is
in the process of disintegration. Conversely, I believe that India is
basically one nation with one culture. That India's base is Hindu.
Hindus form the backbone of Indian society because they are more than
83%. In addition, it is the tolerant nature of Hindu civilization which
has kept India in one piece for the last 5,000 years. I believe that you
are deliberately downplaying and undermining the role of forces of
nationalism and patriotism. This question left him red in the face.
Visibly shaken, Mr. Nandy tried to overcome his treacherous propensities.
There was a hush for a moment in the auditorium. After a while, Mr.
Nandy composed himself and replied that "I AM NOT A HINDU AND HENCE I DO
NOT SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR VIEW OF HINDUTVA (INDIANNESS)".
Till then I was under the impression that Mr. Nandy was a diehard
Stalinist. Everyone in the audience was wonderstruck and shocked to hear
that Mr. Nandy was not a Hindu. A thought came to my mind; if Mr. Nandy
is not a Hindu why is he fooling and cheating us like Dilip Kumar, whose
real name is Usuf Khan, by using Hindu-sounding name. I realized that
this man is a wolf in sheep's clothing and a fraud. In the crowd, there
were some converts ashamed of their Hindu ancestry. However, there were
some courageous Hindus who were proud of their Hindu identity and
appreciated me for cornering this anti-national, pseudo-intellectual. It
pained me to know that while nationalistic forces are endeavoring to
liberate the trapped soul of the nation, this rootless and alienated
Indian was trying to ridicule them.
Ms. Shaheen Kumar spoke about NGOs and other voluntary organizations. I
asked Ms. Kumar you have done a lot of research on unknown voluntary
organizations, how come you have chosen to completely disregard RSS, the
largest volunteer force on earth which has more than one million
volunteers and runs more than 30,000 projects in India for the betterment
and welfare of poor people living in slum areas and tribal belts. Most
of the Indian and American sitting in the audience were surprised to hear
this news. Again, there was a feeling of uneasiness in the panelists and
a flutter in the crowd. To conceal her predilection or deliberate
ignorance towards the biggest voluntary force in the world, Ms. Kumar
said that she was talking only about small voluntary organizations.
Even though the theme of the meeting was India's past, present and
future, none of the speakers uttered a single word in praise of their
Motherland which had given them sustenance, education and knowledge -
which they were misusing against their countrymen.
At the end of meeting, I expressed my indignation and dismay, and
protested to the President of Asia Society against the composition of the
one-sided panel and the downright dishonesty in presentation.
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Date: December 9, 1997
Source: Outlook
Vajpayee most favoured Indian PM
NEW DELHI, Dec 9 (AFP) - Hindu nationalist Atal Behari Vajpayee
is the most popular potential prime minister in India where
elections are due early next year, according to an opinion poll
published Tuesday.
A total of 49 percent of 1,505 respondents polled across seven
cities said Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian
People's Party) was best suited for the job.
Vajpayee, 77, was prime minister for 13 days at the head of the
BJP's first ever government in New Delhi following last year's
election.
Vajpayee, foreign minister in 1977-79, is considered the
moderate face of his party.
Outgoing Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral was favoured by just
19 percent. Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of assassinated
former premier Rajiv Gandhi, was third with 14 percent, according to
Outlook magazine.
Other potential contenders for the top post were far behind:
communist Jyoti Basu had five percent and Congress party chief
Sitaram Kesri and the more hardline Hindu nationalist Lal Krishna
Advani had three percent each.
Outlook said the survey was conducted following last week's
collapse of Gujral's multi-party United Front government after the
Congress withdrew its crucial parliamentary support.
Fifty-three percent of the respondents criticised the Congress
for toppling Gujral's seven-month government. Elections could take
place in February or March.
The BJP finished the single largest party with 162 seats
following last year's elections to the 545-seat parliament. It
formed a government but resigned after 13 days after failing to
muster a parliamentary majority.
The Congress, the second largest party with 140 seats, later
propped up the United Front in a bid to keep the Hindu nationalists
at bay.
In other responses to the opinion poll, 51 percent said they had
lost faith in the political system while only 33 percent opposed the
entry of Sonia Gandhi into politics because of her foreign origins.
Sonia, 50, has been under increasing pressure from the Congress
to lead the party's upcoming campaign.
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Date: December 10, 1997
Source: Hindustan Times
Stable Govt is BJP's poll plank
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NEW DELHI, Dec. 9 (By Saroj Negi) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which
goes into the forthcoming elections with a decided edge over the other
parties and the slogan of "stable Government and able leadership", however
appears uncertain about the clear and decisive mandate it is seeking from
the people this time.
The party desperately needs at least another 80-odd seats over its existing
tally of 193 (163 of its own and 30 of its allies) to be in a winning
position.
This is considered a daunting task, notwithstanding the progressive
increment in the number of Lok Sabha seats the BJP won in the last 15 years.
without showing the same increase in the voting percentage mark.
The party hopes to cross this hump by playing the stability card that had
fetched the Congress dividends during its heydays. This includes whipping up
an atmosphere against the instability of the Congress-UF experiment so that
the people overcome all arithmetical calculations to see a stable pole in
the BJP.
Its sense of certainty seems to spring from two counts. One, that the party
is conspicuous by its absence in the South and North-Eastern States. In the
last general elections it was left unrepresented in more than half-a-dozen
major States which had a total of about 140 seats. These States included
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh Kerala, Orissa, West Bengal, Punjab, Himachal and
some of the north-eastern States.
Besides, this geographical lacuna, the uncertainty stems also from the
political chemistry that could work against the BJP in the postelection
scenario. Although the party leadership maintains that there is a
qualitative change in the scenario and parties and smaller groupings would
rally round the BJP if it came to that, there are also apprehensions that it
may be left in a lurch again if the electorate throws up a hung Lok Sabha.
It is possibly with this in mind, that while the BJP has not ruled out
post-election tie-ups, it is keen to sew up any alliance over its four
existing ones before the elections to further its chances of a victory. "All
those willing to join hands with us should know what the BJP stands for,"
BJP president K. L. Sharma said.
The party's keenness on a preelection tie-up is closely related to the three
experiences it has had over the last 18 months when the potential weak links
in the UF and the Congress opted for polls even breaking ranks.
Along with this, it is also apprehensive that the UF and the Congress could
get together again to keep it out If the electorate fails to deliver a clear
verdict again. In an effort to leave nothing to chance the BJP has begun
reaching out to potential allies among leaders and parties, particularly in
geographical regions where it has little or no presence.
Informal consultations are already on with Mamata Bannerjee and her Tirnamul
Congress, S. Bangarappa who recently quit the Congress and Dilip Ray of the
Janata Dal which is in the doldrums after Biju Patnaik's death. BJP sources
say that Mr Ray and his band may announce their decision to join forces with
the BlP during the party's national executive meet on Dec 19-21. A tie-up
with Laxmi Parvati' s Telugu Desam has been on the anvil for quite some
time.
Mr K. L. Sharma also announced that the party was m touch with these
leaders, including former Premier H. D. Deve Gowda. When the Congress had
withdrawn its support to his Government, Mr Gowda had turned to the BJP to
bail him out during the confidence vote. Although the BJP did not seem
averse to the move at that time, the scenario that unfolded brought about a
change in strategy.
While the BJP's focus of attack would remain the Congress, and the UF as a
nebulous and unstable entity, it is also keen to avoid riling the regional
parties constituting the UF, be it the DMK, the TDP (Naidu) or the AGP.
Until now, the BJP has refrained from attacking the regional parties. During
his "swarna jayanti yatra" in July-August, party president L. K. Advani had
exhorted the BJP State units to avoid targetting the regional parties and
concentrate instead on the Congress and the UF as an entity.
Similarly, when the Congress made an issue of the Jain Commission Interim
Report and demanded the ouster of the DMK from the UF Government for its
alleged links with the LTTE, the BJP played soft on the regional force. It
was also the first to lambast the report for its sweeping generalisations
about the entire Tamil community.
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Date: December 10, 1997
Source: Times of India
BJP will contest all Gujrat seats
AHMEDABAD: The BJP on Monday decided to contest
all the 26 Lok Sabha seats from the state in the
coming elections. The party is also likely to
recommend to the central leadership that the 16
outgoing members should be renominated.
These decisions were taken at a meeting convened
by state unit president Vajubhai Vala for a
preliminary review of the politicial situation as
well as the party's prospects in the state. The
meeting, held at Gandhinagar ,was attended, among
others, by national vice president Keshubhai
Patel and senior leaders like Suresh Mehta and
Kashiram Rana.
The state leaders exuded confidence that the wind
was in favour of the BJP and the party would win
all the seats even if the ruling Rashtriya Janata
Party and the Congress entered into an electoral
alliance for the election, Vallabh Kathiriya,
state general secretary, told reporters after the
meeting.
The party would also consider the plea of those
party nominees who lost the election last time.
However, the final decision on selecting the
candidates would be taken by the central
leadership, he added.
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End of bjp-l-digest V2 #2
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