NATIONAL POLITICS
If all the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted to do was to prove that it is a party with a mass base and to infuse confidence in its units, that objective was successfully achieved through the party's three-day, Rs. 5 crore maha- adhiveshan (plenary session) at the Mahalaxmi Race Course.
But apart from this, there was no indication, in the party's political or economic resolution, that the BJP is readying to take over the reins of power in New Delhi.
Though the scene at Mahalakshmi was one of camaraderie, many commented on the low profile of former party president Dr. M.M. Joshi. It was mostly Advani and Vajpayee all the way. Political observers felt this did not augur well for the party's unity.
According to these observers, a piqued Dr. Joshi always seemed to take a stand opposite to that of Advani, probably to gain attention. They felt if Advani and Vajpayee could find a way to work as a triumvirate (or a trishul, as the more militant Hindutva protagonists would say), it would be more beneficial to the party.
Long time party workers also continue to be sore about the fact that "infiltrators into the party arc straightaway made members of the national executive". They cite the instance of Ramkrishna Vikal of Uttar Pradesh, an old Congress hand who joined the BJP and was made a member of the executive,
Similarly, a retired chairman of Coal India Limited, sundry retired generals, former comptroller and auditor general T.N. Chaturvedi, former Maharashtra chief secretary P.G. Gavai, and IAS and IFS officers like J.C. Jetley and Brijesh Mishra respectively, have all been inducted into the national executive.
The workers claimed that almost 40 per cent of the national executive is now made up of such 'outsiders'.
While there may not be much dispute about the competence of these recruits, the workers' grouse is that these people enjoy high positions in government till the age of retirement then move to high positions in the party and clamour for Rajya Sabha seats, leaving hard-working and sincere activists high and dry.
Another instance cited in this regard is Yashwant Sinha who was even assigned the task of moving the economic resolution.
The workers' main worry is that if the party is seen as a definite winner in next year's Lok Sabha elections, more such fair-weather friends will clamour to be let in.
Some of the delegates were also worried that "no remedial measures were in sight to retrieve discipline in the states where there is intense infighting". Many felt there was an urgent need for better co-ordination between the government and the party at the state level, and some sort of mechanism at the central level to constantly monitor and evaluate the functioning of the state governments and legislators.
Many delegates this reporter spoke to felt there should be a vigilance committee, like the disciplinary committee, to keep a close watch on the lifestyle of party MLAs and MPs, and to look into complaints against these elected representatives.
All agreed that the party's most important Lok Sabha poll plank would be the performance of its four state governments. That will be the acid test that will show the electorate how, if at all, the BJP is different from the Congress.
(Source: The Sunday Observer, 19 November, 1995)
SS: Views of Bal Thackeray on Kashmir Problem:
On Kashmir, BJP opposed elections, but also said if elections take place they will take part in it. If you ask me. I will say, no elections till the Kashmiri Pandits can go back and cast their votes. That's why I said the BJP is trying to eat sugar and chillies together.
We should give the army a free hand. Now it's like giving them Sten guns without bullets. Pakistani extremists have encroached upon our land, and it is our right to retaliate and protect our sovereign state. Shoot them, kill them. No dialogue, not even with Yasin Malik People must feel the pinch that there is a government. Or we are helpless, raped by everybody. We have a prime minister, we have a home minister, so why should we move like orphans without parents?
On Personal Threat
My Shiv Sainiks have thrown a challenge to Dawood that if you want, come here, rather than sit in Dubai and hire some supari killers from there. I am well protected by my Shiv Sainiks, they are my real bullet-proof jacket. If anything happens to me this whole country will go up in flames. You can put it in writing and I will sign it. There will be anarchy. It is not that easy to finish me. And if they do it, Dawood or anybody, we have a human bomb which will blast the country. And the civil war will start not in 1998, as I have predicted, but immediately. 1 have told my boys to be ready. They will go berserk if anything happens to me. If they touch me it will flare up throughout the country. It will be disastrous for everybody.
On Nationalism
My Hinduism is nationalism, not communalism. I am proud of being a Hindu.
(Source: The India Today, 15 December, 1995)
CPI(M) Leader Prakash Karat on UP Civic Poll Results
The UP civic polls underscore the following tasks for the Left and secular forces:
1) There has to be more serious efforts to forge wider unity among all the secular opposition forces.
2) Both the SP and JD has to set aside their subjective prejudices so that a full understanding and adjustment can be worked out between themselves and with the Left parties. The important step initiating the unity of the SP and JD must be carried forward.
3) A joint campaign must be taken up by all the secular and Left forces to mobilise the people against the communal forces.
It is in this direction that the electoral tactics to defeat the BJP must be shaped.
(Source: The People's Democracy)
Smita Gupta in The Times of India
The BJP emerged as the clear winner in the just concluded three-tier civic polls in U.P. But despite the division in the non-BJP vote, there was no arithmetical swing in favour of the party. For instance, in eight of the 11 cities in which it won mayoral contests, the sitting MPs are also from the BJP. And in elections to the city boards (nagar palika parishads), it won less than a third of the chairpersons' seats, while in the town areas (nagar panchayats), its score fell to approximately one fourth.
So while the results of these polls which covered about 206 of the 425 assembly seats or 41 of the Lok Sabha seats 0 has come as a morale booster for the party. they do not represent any increase in its strength on the ground. These polls have also underlined the extent to which the Congress has been decimated in the state - in the 1990 mayoral elections, the Congress won nine of the 11 seats and the BJP only two (Agra and Bareilly).
Another fact that emerges from these results is that while the SP remains the second strongest force in the state, the "truncated" BSP cannot yet be written off-it finished third, ahead of the JD, the two left parties and the two factions of the Congress.
These results are bound to have an impact on the unity talks going on among he constituents of the Third Front. Though voting percentages are not yet available, it is evident that the Janata Dal's claims in the state have been put to severe test and the arguments of the pro- Bahujan Samaj Party element in the party have been proved right the BSP has made a good showing in Western UP (with quite a few Muslim candidates) where neither the SP nor the JD have much of a base.
As JD ideologue Surendra Mohan puts it, "The BJP has always been strong in the big cities. But if there had been a JD-SP-BSP combination in the kasbas and mofussil areas (i.c. for the nagar palika parishads and nagar panchayats), the results could have been different. If these parties wish to learn a lesson, it is that the BJP can be stopped by an all out effort."
Is this an indication that the Muslim vote is not totally with the SP, as it claims? Mr. Mohan says that while the BSP's winning Dalit-Muslim combination in parts of western UP "have not appeared elsewhere, it will be difficult for Mulayam Singh to sustain the claim that he has the entire Muslim vote, it means it will be difficult to keep the BJP in check unless the BSP is involved."
(Source: The Times of India, 1 December, 1995)
CPI: National Executive,
22-23 November, 1995 (Political Resolution) BJP's Maha Adhiveshan
The BJP's Maha Adhiveshan had the calculated objective of making an all-out bid for power, and putting itself forward as the only party which is bound to tak over after the poll.
Trying to camouflage its aggressive "Hindutva" has now put on a new face given a broad-based name fo it, viz, 'cultural nationalism' though it cannot of cours deny the original product. The five components of thi 'cultural nationalism' ultimately boil down to the following scrap article 370, reject Kashmir package uniform civil code, stop Bangladeshi influx, build Ran temple (to be followed by Mathura and Varanasi, though they are not now on the agenda).
Events have however shown up the weaknesses o the BJP and demolished their claim to be a 'different typ of a party', a cadre-based and value based party Dissidence and inner conflicts, leading to violence resignation and so forth have caught up with it fast in al states where it matters and pins its hopes.
The BJP's relations with its allies also give ne ground for comfort to it. It will hold on to its alliance with the Shiv Sena at any cost, but the latter is everyday taking pot shots at it, and taunting it for "toning down the saffron colour". Its hope of taking advantage of the support to the BSP government has backfired.
Its laboured attempt at posing that politics now it 'either BJP or anti-BJP' come up against the growing reality of a third alternative which is both against the Congress and BJP, and the fact that it has not much of a presence in the eastern and southern states. As to it Ashwamedh, it is being said that if wishes were horses then perhaps the BJP could ride to power.
Efforts to Fore Third Alternative
The National Executive analysed the political developments. The situation in general is fast changing It continues to be complex and in a flux. Efforts to achieve the national objective of defeating Congress and BJP and projecting viable left-democratic-secular alternative is to be pursued sincerely taking the specific concrete situation in each state.
The CPI will take all possible initiatives to interac with other left, democratic and secular forces to sort out the issues as early as possible.
(Source: The New Age, 3-9 December, 1995)
