GOVERNMENT
President's Address to Parliament,
24 May, 1996 (Extracts)
Our endeavor should be to strive for a wholesome Consensus on all vital national issues.
The vastness of our country, its diversity and the underlying unity are our basic strengths. India is one people, one nation with her unique culture. Government will do all that it may to ensure that harmonious relations are maintained between different communities and groups. Government is committed to provide security and protect the life and property of all people, particularly the weaker sections and minorities. Violence manifesting itself in separatist extremist, criminal and anti-social activities have no place in any civilized society and would he effectively deal with by the Government. In doing so the Government cannot forget that political, social and economic measures are equally necessary in resolving these problems.
Illegal immigration which has an unsettling effect will be curbed through comprehensive measures.
Jammu and Kashmir is an inalienable part of India. No attempt to interfere with our internal affairs there will be tolerated. We are keen to restore the democratic functioning of the State for which all efforts are being made to ensure free and fair polls in the state.
In order to ensure cow protection, and to impose a total ban on the slaughter of cows and cow progeny, Government will take up suitable measures.
The Government will pursue policies aimed at the real empowerment of women, so as to ensure that their dignity and rights are not violated and their full potential is realized. The Government will take necessary legislative and other steps to provide for reservation of 33% of the seats for women in all elected bodies, including State Assemblies and Parliament.
We believe in increasing state investment in health and nutrition programme.
The long-term objective is to stabilize population by the first decade of the next century. The Government will devise a system of incentives and disincentives for encouraging adoption of family planning norms.
The Government's foremost priority in the area of foreign policy will be the improvement of relations with all our neighbors in South Asia including Pakistan, bilaterally and in the SAARC forum.
It is regrettable that Pakistan continues to instigate terrorism against India. We calt upon Pakistan to respond constructively to our repeated offers to resolve all outstanding issues bilaterally Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's.
Address to Nation, 19 May, 1996
Instead of entering into a debate on 'communalism', or the true meaning of secularism, a determined effort is being made to obscure issues, to avoid an honest and meaningful debate.
Sarva Panth Samabhav
India is an ancient civilization. It has always had different sects and religious practices. WE do not limit ourselves to one God or one Prophet or a single Book. We are a multi-religious country and we believe in the equality of all religious faiths.
It is because of this that we have never had any tension, leave alone a violent struggle on the correct path to achieve a realization of God. "Sarva Panth Samabhav", or equal respect to all faiths is part of our civilizational consciousness. Secularism' thus is integrated into our lives. India never was, and never will be, a theocratic State. My government is committed to creating an environment of social harmony and peace.
What happened in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 was not the result of any pre-planned conspiracy. If problems related with religion are not resolved for long period of time, then the result is what happened at Ayodhya. Every society has two methods of solving Ayodhya - like disputes - by discussions and dialogues or through legislation. In the case of Ayodhya, neither of these two approaches was pursued seriously. The dispute was before the courts for decades and remains there.
It is hardly necessary to recall that immediately after the advent of Islam in West Asia, the first mosque was built in Kerala, then ruled by a Hindu Raja. In like manner, soon after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the first church was established in India. These manifestations of different faiths are living symbols of We believe in increasing state investment in health our secular traditions. We will maintain these traditions.
This Government will pro-actively pursue a foreign policy based on peace, equality and cooperation. Our immediate goal is to improve our relations with all our neighbors including Pakistan.
My government will not relent in its efforts to establish peace in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Elections will be held on schedule. The territorial integrity of our country will be preserved and protected at all costs.
The Real Face of the BJP - The Vajpayee Mask Reveals More than it Concedes Siddharth Varadarajan in The Times of India, 22 May, 1996
Despite its carefully crafted rhetoric, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's televised address to the nation could not quite succeed in keeping the darker side of the BJP safely under wraps. His elliptical reference to the demolition of the Babari Masjid "if problems related with religion are not resolved for a long period of time, then the result is what happened in Ayodhya" is as shocking a rationalization of bloodshed and vandalism as the late Rajiv Gandhi's defense of the November 1984 murder of Sikhs ("when a big tree falls, the earth is bound to shake").
Far from being contrite about his party's role in the destruction of the ancient mosque, the Prime Minister has essentially said that if the people do not cooperate with the BJP's agenda of resolving "religious problems", Ayodhya-style incidents will be inevitable. Mr. Vajpayee has amplified the same portentous theme in a; recent interview to Panchajanya. Judging by his liberal use of the usual coded threats to Muslims, the assumption of high office has not made the slightest difference to the party's sense of propriety.
For example, he has stated that "if minorities continue to think in the language of minorityism, then the majority will start thinking in the language of majorityism and this will increase the gulf between the two communities". In other words, the minorities must behave in the PM's words, they should "think of (themselves) as Indians" or else, be prepared to accept the worst. This is doublespeak at its worst. Were those who demolished the Babari Masjid thinking of themselves as Indians? Are those clamoring for the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya thinking of themselves as Indians?
In the same interview, Mr. Vajpayee has dispelled the idea that his party is "softening" its stance on the temple issue. "Our goals are the same. it is part of our strategy as to which path we adopt at which point of time. Strategy has to always be flexible". Small consolation that this is supposed to be the soft, cuddly face of Hindutva
Mr. Vajpayee's promise to uphold the law and order also rings a little hollow considering the fact that the BJP's chief ally in the Lok Sabha is Mr. Madhukar Sarpotdar, head of the Shiv Sena's group of MPs. According to Justice H. Suresh and Justice S.M. Daud's independent inquiry into the Bombay riots, Mr. Sarpotdar made incendiary speeches urging his followers to attack Muslim houses. After being arrested and released several times by the Bombay police, Mr. Sarpotdar was finally detained by the Army under the National Security Act. Illegal arms were reportedly recovered from his vehicle. Will Mr. Vajpayee be exercised about bringing the accused of the Bombay riots to trial? While he has gone on record lamenting the abolition of the Srikrishna Commission, is he prep through its reinstatement?
...Only around ten per cent of eligible voters chose the BJP in the elections (the party polled 20 per cent while the nationwide turnout was around 50 per cent), but this has not prevented the chairman of the Bombay Stock Exchange and virtually every corporate notable from declaring that the party has been given a 'mandate' to govern.
The euphoria of the privileged classes is not because the party is promising a temple in Ayodhya. The real appeal of the BJP's divisive policies to them is that it provides excellent opportunity for reaping quick profits. Many corporate barons are eagerly awaiting the sale of the public sector at throwaway prices. As for the Ram bhakts, who continue to languish without adequate drinking water, electricity, homes, food and jobs 50 years after independence, well, they will always have their mandir in Ayodhya to go to.
Vajpayee and Religious Tolerance
Just as Vajpayee began speaking on religious tolerance, dusk fell and the muezzin in the neighboring mosques began the call to prayer. As the Azam filled the air, Vajpayee was forced to increase the volume of his own speech. For the next two minutes it was hard to concentrate on what he was saying as the two voices competed with each other for attention.
Obviously, there had been a major goof-up since the azan occurs at the same time every day. The organizers should have warned Vajpayee in advance to either wind up his speech before the muezzin's call or else to observe a minute's silence in deference to somebody else's religious belief.
You can't talk of tolerance by shouting the other person down. As a poet, Vajpayee should have been aware of this.
(Source: The Sunday, 26 May - 1 June, 1996)
Smruti Koppikar on Muslim Reaction to BJP Government
Their disquiet is unmistakable. For the first time since Independence, Muslims face the prospect of being governed by a party that avowedly represents the majority community. The BJP is not just pro-Hindu, it has made capital from being openly anti-Muslim.
Despite its recent friendly overtures, which detractors say are compelled by political exigencies, the abiding image of the party in the Muslim mind is of cheering kar sevaks tearing down the Babari Masjid. Vajpayee's belated regrets failed to convince most Muslims. The doublespeak on Mathura and Kashi mosques hasn't inspired confidence either. Says Bangalore University professor Hasan Mansur: "It's naive to think that Vajpayee is liberal or secular-mind. He is a Trojan Horse backed by the RSS."
Across the country, reactions to the swearing-in of the BJP Government ranged from vague apprehension to plain alarm. The fence-sitters who had moved away from the Congress (1) but did not cast their lot with the Third Force hope they have not invited disaster. Those who actually voted for the BJP want to believe that the saffron rule will not be "so bad" after all. Some sections, mainly in the south, are indifferent to the developments.
From Lucknow to Patna and from Mumbai to Bangalore, Muslims have adopted a wait-and-watch approach. "it could push us into a situation of second-rate citizenship," says Zafaryab Jilani, activist of the Babari Masjid Sangharsh Samiti. These fears are tinged by their distrust of the Congress (1).
In Mumbai, the Muslim reaction has been muted. They do not apprehend riots unless the BJP Government persists with building he Ram temple or repealing the Religious Places (Protection) Act or brings any other contentious issue to a flashpoint.
But the apprehensions are very real on other fronts. It's not just for their lives they fear, but their collective identity. Says Asghar Ali Engineer, a dissident Bohra scholar: "An anti-Muslim government can make changes in insidious ways, small changes in policies that go unnoticed but which mean an assault on the Muslim identity. We saw what the BJP government did with history books in Uttar Pradesh.
Indeed, on the flip side of the "no riots" argument, the Shiv Sena-BJP Government has scrapped the state Minorities Commission, terminated the Srikrishna Commission probing the Mumbai riots, and hustled bills on cow slaughter and uniform civil code through the Maharashtra Assembly. Both in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, Muslims this year faced severe problems on Bakr-e-Id when Sangh activists prevented vehicles loaded with goats and buffaloes from reaching the markets.
Muslims draw comfort from the fact that the BJP does not have a clear mandate nor the required majority in Parliament. The BJP Government is unlikely to wipe off the Ram Temple, Article 370 and the uniform civil code from its agenda, but the politics of compromise will force Vajpayee to either defer action or put them on the leaders. Repealing Article 370 requires a two-thirds back-burner, say Muslim intellectuals and moderate either... The danger, as Engineer points out, is more majority in the House. Other changes will not be easy covert. The saffron dreams may not come true, but that's all the more reason why the BJP could force these issues on the national agenda. "We may not immediately have a uniform civil code, but there may be communal trouble about it," he says. This could result in a sharper because they have managed to set off intense debates polarization on social and political fronts.
Yet according to Zahed Ali Khan, editor of the Hyderabad-based Urdu daily Siasat, "The BJP cannot afford to be anti-Muslim with its current strength, and the division between the hardliners and moderates makes it impossible to target any community".
(Source: The India Today, 31 May, 1996)
Debashish Mukerji on Fall of BJP Government
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and his cabinet colleagues knew their days were numbered. Their chances of cobbling together a majority in Parliament, feeble to begin with, dwindled to near zero in the days that followed. Yet watching them at work over the first week, few would have guessed they were virtually enacting a charade.
The BJP's capitulation on the choice of the new Speaker finally underscored its helpless position.
Defections, opportunistic splits and mergers have a hoary tradition in Indian electoral politics, which even the Anti-Defection Act, has not entirely curbed. Yet, despite having been given two weeks to prove its majority in the Lok Sabha, the BJP has been singularly unsuccessful in weaning away MPs from other camps into its fold. No MP wants another election in a hurry, yet no MP apart from the few in its allied parties - is willing to support the BJP, despite it being the largest party in the Lok Sabha and thus best placed to ensure a stable government. Why?
It is not as if the BJP was laggard in its efforts to woo the smaller parties. Nowhere did the BJP succeed. Instead, all these regional parties preferred to ally with the Congress its chief opponent in its home state rather than the BJP. Why?
Three main reasons emerged. The most important was the BJP's communal image, the apprehension of alienating Muslims almost all the regional parties had drawn a considerable number of Muslim votes, following Muslim disenchantment with the Congress all over the country. Any alliance with the BJP, they feared, would see the Muslims returning to the Congress, particularly in states like Andhra Pradesh and Assam.
The AGP, for instance, had initially won power following the Assam movement with support solely from the non-Muslims in the state. But the defeat in the 1991 assembly elections convinced AGP's leaders they could not do without the Muslims. Accordingly, this time Muslims were wooed, and indeed the AGP obtained a considerable number of Muslim votes. Thus, supporting the BJP would have been disastrous for the party.
The second reason regional parties avoided the BJP was its image in southern Indian of being a pro-Brahmin, Hindi chauvinist party. "People fear the BJP will ultimately impose Hindi in Tamil Nadu." said a DMK supporter. "It is seen as a North Indian party seeking to impose the hegemony of the North on the South".
Thirdly, even for those practicing short-term politics, the gap that separated BJP's tally from a simple majority, in Parliament, was just too large. Had the BJP tally been higher by another 40 years, the story may well have been. different.
(Source: The Werk, June, 1996)
