BJP : A HUB OF HOPE

15

Politicians are generally critical of media persons. It is, however, rare that media men themselves ridicule their own fraternity for indulging in political criticism not because it is justified but because even while realizing that the criticism is uninformed and superficial, the write ups do add up to “lazy copy”.

Swapan Dasgupta is an eminent journalist who commands great respect in the capital. His page one piece every Sunday in the Pioneer is read with great interest. His latest column (May 27, 2012) is a severe comment on the media which he holds “shapes the tone and tenor of the chattering class discourse”.

Under caption “Media creates its own realities”, Dasgupta wrote last Sunday:

“Given the fact that the media thrives on stereotypes, caricatures…. it was not very surprising that the bite brigade that descended on Mumbai last week for the BJP National Executive was looking for reaffirmations of set conclusions.”

Swapan added a perceptive summing up :

“That everyone in the BJP is not on the same page is a truism. No political party in India, not even the CPI(M), possesses an army where every member of the officer corps think alike. This is democratic normalcy and it is only in India that the media projects the ideal of politics crafted on the North Korean model.”(A Marxist uniformity !)

However, when these days media-persons attack the UPA Government for its string of scams, but at the same time regret that the BJP led NDA is not rising to the occasion, I as a former pressman myself, feel they are reflecting public opinion correctly.

At a meeting of the BJP’s Core Committee some weeks back, a meeting attended by several senior RSS leaders I had reminisced about my sixty years’ political journey since the launching of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951 by Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerji. I had said that thinking of the party’s successes and failures during these sixty years, I cannot think of a more depressing year than 1984, when in the Eighth Lok Sabha Elections that took place that year, our party had put up 229 candidates. Our score in the Lok Sabha was a miserable two, one from Gujarat and the other from Andhra. In all the other states of the country, including U.P., Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, we had drawn a blank. Even in the first General Elections to the Lok Sabha in 1952, our party had captured three seats, more than in 1984 !

In 1984 I was Party President and so felt extremely downcast. But I also remember that the party had set up a Committee headed by Krishan Lal Sharma to analyse the poll results objectively. The Committee had reported that in the rank and file of the party as also in our support base, there was no demoralization because of the electoral setback, which was being attributed to the dastardly assassination of Smt. Gandhi by terrorists and a powerful sympathy wave for young Rajiv Gandhi.

The mood within the party these days is not upbeat. The results in Uttar Pradesh, the manner in which the party welcomed BSP Ministers who were removed by Mayawati ji on charges of corruption, the party’s handling of Jharkhand and Karnataka – all these events have undermined the party’s campaign against corruption.

The fact that we have a sizable contingent of MPs in Parliament today as against the niggardly two seats in 1984, that our performance in the two Houses under Sushmaji and Jaitleyji has been excellent, that the party is in power in as many as nine states today is no compensation for the lapses committed. I had said at the Core Group meeting that if people are today angry with the U.P.A. Government, they are also disappointed with us. The situation, I said, calls for introspection.

****

TAILPIECE

The Times of India carries today (May 30, 2012) a news item with the caption:

            AT 97, A.K. HANGAL SHOOTS FOR TV

The report says :

A year and a half ago, Avtar Kishan Hangal aka A K. Hangal, who had made millions weep with his heart-rending roles on screen was fighting illness and poverty at his residence in Santa Cruz East.

But things are now changing for the actor who had also been an active participant in the national struggle for freedom. The 97-year-old actor after starring in over 200 films, is all set to return to the small screen with a brand new show, Madhubala. He has been a part of several shows in the 1990s.

The actor will play himself on the show that is reportedly based on the life of veteran actress Madhubala. In fact, Hangal shot for the part a couple of days back.

Hangal came on the scheduled day and shot for nearly an hour. “It was something that we had never imagined possible. He has unique energy. It was like a blessing for us. Even his son told us how happy he was to shoot after almost seven to eight years. We were all charged up seeing him on the sets. That one-hour was purely magical. I did not know whether he would be able to pull it off at this age. But he managed to give a one-take shot. It was wonderful”, said Saurabh Tewari, the producer of the show.

I remember that in the sixties and seventies, there were journalists who often used to compare the Jana Sangh with film actor A.K. Hangal and say that Hangal is always admired by cine-goers. But he cannot sustain a full film by himself. He is a brilliant character actor. But he is not a star: neither a hero, nor even a villain. Jana Sangh’s position in Indian politics is similar. Its patriotism and integrity secures for it the plaudits of all; but the party will never dominate the political scene.

I recall challenging such comments, and asserting that a day will certainly come when the situation will undergo a complete metamorphosis. That has now happened. Today BJP has become converted into such a hub of hope for all, that if it commits even a minor lapse, it does cause distress and disappointment to the people.

L.K. ADVANI

New Delhi

May 31, 2012

 http://blog.lkadvani.in/blog-in-english/bjp-a-hub-of-hope

SALUTATIONS TO A GREAT MARTYR !

Today is 23^rd of June.  It is a date the nation must not forget. Exactly 59 years back, in 1953, on this very day Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee passed away in Srinagar in mysterious circumstances. 

In October 1951, Dr. Mookerjee had founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. He had been elected its first National President.

In 1952, the Election Commission had organized the First General elections to the Lok Sabha, and the State Assemblies. Dr. Mookerjee was elected to the first Lok Sabha from a Calcutta constituency.

In December 1952, the first All India Session of the Jana Sangh was held at Kanpur. It was at this conclave that Dr. Mookerjee gave a call to the country for the complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir State into the Indian Union. The call was summed up in a powerful slogan:

Ek desh men     Do Vidhan                                                           

                        Do Pradhan

                        Do Nishan

Nahin Chalenge 

Nahin Chalenge

(Ours is one country; we cannot have

  Two Constitutions

  Two Presidents

  Two Flags)    

             

The Kanpur session ended with a resolve: to launch a countrywide movement for the full integration of J&K State into the Union.

The movement was preceded by Dr. Mookerjee’s correspondence with Prime Minister Pandit Nehru on this issue of J&K’s full integration.

This was followed up by Dr. Syama Prasad undertaking a countrywide tour on this issue.  In this tour he was accompanied by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

I was in Kota, Rajasthan, those days.

I can never forget meeting these two great stalwarts at the Kota Railway Station, when the two were passing through Kota Junction.

The J&K Government had decreed that any visitor to the State would be permitted entry only if he secured a permit from the State Government.  Dr. Mookerjee felt that this order of the State Government was violative of the Indian Constitution.  So he decided that he himself would lead from the front the movement he had given a call for, by defying the entry-permit order. 

Dr. Mookerjee left Delhi for his Kashmir destination on May 8, 1953 by a passenger train carrying him and his entourage into Punjab.  Throughout Punjab, it was a sea of humanity that accosted him everywhere. 

His last stop was at the border check-post at Madhopur on the River Ravi, one of the great five rivers of Punjab, marking the boundary between Punjab and J&K.   The day of his entry into this State was May 10, 1953.  There was a road bridge across the Ravi.  The boundary between the two states was supposed to be at the mid point of this Madhopur bridge.

When the jeep carrying Dr. Mookerjee reached the centre-point of the bridge they found a posse of J&K Police blocking the road.  The Superintendent of Police, Kathua (J&K State) handed Dr. Mookerjee an order signed by the Chief Secretary of the State banning Dr. Mookerjee’s entry into the State.  “But I am determined to go into the State”, Dr. Mookerjee declared.

Thereupon the police officer took out an order of arrest under the Public Safety Act, and took Dr. Mookerjee into custody.  Vaidya Guru Dutt and Tekchand were two colleagues in the group who had been assigned the duty of accompanying Dr. Mookerjee when he was arrested.  These two also courted arrest.

Dr. Mookerjee then spoke to Atalji and asked him to go back and convey to the people of the country that Dr. Mookerjee had defied the prohibitory orders, and entered Jammu and Kashmir without a permit, though as a prisoner. 

The place at which Dr. Syama Prasad was incarcerated was a small house near Nishat Bag far away from Srinagar City.  This house was converted into a sub-jail.

On June 23, 1953, the whole country was shocked to learn that after a brief illness at his place of detention, Dr. Mookerjee was shifted to the State Hospital about ten miles away, where he had breathed his last.

I was at Jaipur that day.  I vividly remember how in the early hours of June 24 morning, about 4.30 a.m., I was woken up from sleep by the loud wailing sounds of someone outside our party office at Chaura Rasta (he turned out to be a local newsman), who kept shouting, while weeping: “Advaniji, they have killed Dr. Mookerjee”!

Tathagata Roy is one of our prominent activists of West Bengal.   He has been at one point of time the President of our State unit there.  He has lately written “a complete biography” of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee.  It is to be released next month.  We in the BJP owe our position in India’s politics to the sacrifices and exertions of thousands who have preceded us, and above all to the vision and martyrdom of Dr. Mookerjee. 

We had known our great leader closely only during the closing years of his life.  Tathagata has done a signal service to history and to the nationalist cause we are pursuing in politics by doing all the research necessary and preparing this volume informing readers about the life of this great patriot right from his birth.  All kudos to Tathagata Roy.

TEXT OF LETTER WRITTEN TO

PRIME MINISTER NEHRU BY

SMT. JOGMAYA DEBI,

MOTHER OF DR. S.P. MOOKERJEE

77 Asutosh Mookerjee Road

Calcutta

4^th July, 1953

Dear Mr. Nehru,

            Your letter dated 30^th June was forwarded to me on the 2^nd of July by Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.  I thank you for your message of condolence and sympathy.

The nation mourns the passing away of my beloved son.  He has died a martyr’s death.  To me, his mother, the sorrow is too deep and sacred to be expressed.  I am not writing to you to seek my consolation.  But what I do demand of you is Justice.  My son died in detention –  a detention -  without trial.  In your letter you have tried to impress that Kashmir government had done all that should have been done.  You base your impression on the assurances and information you have received.  What is the value,  I ask, of such information when it comes from persons who themselves should stand a trial? You say, you had visited Kashmir during my son’s detention.  You speak of the affection you had for him.  But what prevented you, I wonder, from meeting him there personally and satisfying yourself about his health and arrangements?

       His death is shrouded in mystery. Is it not most astounding and shocking that ever since his detention there, the first information that I, his mother, received from the Government of Kashmir was that my son was no more and that also at least two hours after the end? And in what a cruel cryptic way the message was conveyed! Even the telegram from my son that he had been removed to the Hospital reached us here after the tragic news of his death. There is definite information that my son had not been keeping well practically from the beginning of his detention. He had been positively ill a number of times and for successive periods. Why did not, I ask, the Government of Kashmir or your Government send any information whatsoever to me and my family?

Even when he was removed to the Hospital they did not think it necessary to immediately intimate us or Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. It is also evident that the Kashmir Government had never cared to acquaint itself with the previous history of Syamaprasad’s health and provide for nursing arrangements and emergent medical attendance in case of need. Even his repeated attacks of illness were not taken as a warning. The result was disastrous. I have positive evidence to prove that he had, to quote his own words, a “sinking feeling” on the morning of 22nd June. And what did the Government do? The inordinate delay in getting any medical assistance, his removal to the Hospital in most injudicious manner, the refusal to allow even his two co-detenus to be by his side in the Hospital are some glaring instances of the heartless conduct of the authorities concerned. 

       The responsibility of the government and their own doctors cannot be in any way evaded or lightened by some stray quotations from Syama Prasad’s letters chosen at random, that he was keeping well.  What is the value of such quotations? Docs anybody seriously expect that he – of all persons – and that while in detention far away from his dear and near ones – would ventilate his grievances through letters or diagnose his own malady?  The responsibility of the Government was immense and serious.

I charge them that they had utterly neglected and failed to discharge this bounden duty. You speak of the comforts and amenities given to dear Syama Prasad in detention. It is a matter to be enquired into. The Kashmir Government had not even the courtesy to allow free flow of family correspondence. Letters were held up, and some mysteriously disappeared. His anxiety for home news, particularly of his ailing daughter-and my poor self, was distressing. Will you be astonished to learn that on the 27th June last, we received here his letters dated 15th June, despatched by the Kashmir Government in a packet on the 24th June, that is, a day after sending his dead body? That packet also brought back to us the letters addressed by myself and others here to Syama Prasad which had reached Srinagar on the 11th and 16th June, but had never been delivered to him. It was a case of mental torture. He had been repeatedly asking for sufficient space for walking. He was feeling ill for want of it. But he was persistently refused Is not this a method of physical torture too? I am filled with surprise and shame to be told by you “that he was being kept not in any prison but in a private villa on the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar.” Strictly confined in a small bungalow with a little compound, guarded day and night by a body of armed guards—such was the life that he was leading. Is it seriously maintained that a golden cage should make a prisoner happy? I shudder to hear such desperate propaganda. I do not know what medical treatment and assistance had been given to him. The official reports, I am told, are self-contradictory. Eminent physicians have expressed their views that it was, in the least, a case of gross negligence. The matter requires a thorough and impartial enquiry.

I do not bewail here the death of my beloved son. A fearless son of Free India has met his death while in detention without trial under most tragic and mysterious circumstances. I, the mother of the great departed, demand that an absolutely impartial and open enquiry by independent and competent persons be held without delay. I know nothing can bring back to us the life that is no more. But what I do want is that the people of India must judge for themselves the real causes of this great tragedy enacted in a free country and the part that was played by your Govern­ment.

If a wrong has been done anywhere, by any person—however high he may be—let justice take its course and let the people be cautious so that no mother in Free India has again to shed tears with the same agony and grief that has befallen me.

You are good enough to tell me not to hesitate to inform you about any service that you may render to me. Here is the demand on my own behalf and on behalf of the mothers of India. May God give you courage to allow Truth to see the Light.

Before I close my letter I would refer to one very important fact. Syama Prasad’s personal diary and his other manuscript writings were not returned by the Kashmir Government along with his other belongings. Copies of correspondence between Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed and my eldest son, Ramaprasad, are enclosed herein. I shall be deeply grateful if you could recover the diary and the manuscripts from the Kashmir Government. They must be with them.

With my blessings,

Yours in grief,

Sd/-

Jogmaya Debi.

L.K. Advani

New Delhi

June 23, 2012

 http://blog.lkadvani.in/blog-in-english/salutations-to-a-great-martyr

IF SAUDIS CAN SURRENDER ABU JUNDAL, WHY CAN’T PAK HAND OVER DAWOOD IBRAHIM?

A distinguished visitor to New Delhi last week was Jalil Abbas Jilani, Foreign Secretary of Pakistan. He had earlier worked in the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and was Deputy Head of the Mission here. Mr. Jilani came to meet me at my residence along with several other Pakistani officials including the newly arrived Pakistan High Commissioner Salman Bashir. The Pak officials were at my place for nearly an hour and there was a free and frank discussion with regard to several issues concerning Indo-Pak relations.

The Pakistani Foreign Secretary was all praise for the NDA Government’s earnest efforts to restore normalcy and goodwill between India and Pakistan. I said to him that for us the greatest regret has been that the joint statement issued by Gen. Musharraf and Shri A.B. Vajpayee at Islamabad after the SAARC Conference affirming that Pakistan would not allow any part of its country or any area under its control to be used for terrorist operations against India has not been sincerely followed up.

Today, I said to him, there are numerous terrorist outfits active in Pakistan. There is no denying that lately more people are dying in Pakistan at the hands of terrorists than they are dying in India. And so, Government of India as well as the people here are conscious that Islamabad is today proactively fighting terrorism within its own borders. But the shared view here also is that while Pakistan is taking head on terrorist groups such as Tahreik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP), which has been targeting Pakistan, it continues to provide assistance to groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and Hizbul Mujahideen (H.M.) whose target is India.

An even more distressing aspect of continuing Indo-Pak tension on the issue of terrorism is the safe haven Pakistan still provides to declared terrorists and absconders like Dawood Ibrahim. If taking a cue from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan can hand over Dawood Ibrahim to India, it can overnight change public perception in India about Pakistan.

* 

On January 11, 2011, M.J. Akbar’s brilliant book on Pakistan titled Tinderbox was released in New Delhi.  Presently the author has left for a short trip to the U.S. for a book tour of the country to coincide with the release of the American edition of Tinderbox.

I remember that on the very day this book was released in India last year, a ghastly murder took place in Pakistan. Salman Taseer, Governor of Pakistan’s most populous state, Punjab, was assassinated by a member of his personal security detail. Taseer had invited the fanatic’s wrath because of his outspoken defence of a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, at that point of time facing a death penalty on charges of blasphemy. The Punjab Governor had been boldly advocating repeal of blasphemy laws.

In his introduction to the book, Akbar wrote:

Muslims of British India had opted for a separate homeland in 1947, destroying the possibility of a secular India in which Hindus and Muslims would coexist, because they believed that they would be physically safe, and their religion secure, in a new nation called Pakistan. Instead, within six decades, Pakistan had become one of the most violent nations on earth, not because Hindus were killing Muslims, but because Muslims were killing Muslims.

In his very brief speech that day, M.J. Akbar referred to the grim tragedy that had occurred in Lahore that very day, and affirmed:

            If Salman Taseer had been in India, he would not have died !

* 

Last week, the media carried some select news items based on a book of memoirs titled ‘Turning Points’, written by former Rashtrapati Dr. Kalam. I was surprised to find reports supposed to be based on the book about Gujarat in which Vajpayeeji was being found fault with for trying to protect the Narendra Modi Government. Dr. Kalam’s book has not been released as yet. But I have been able to procure Chapter Nine of this book captioned “My Visit to Gujarat”. Dr. Kalam says that his visit to Gujarat in August 2002 was his “first major task” after taking over as President.  He adds:

“As no president had ever visited an area under such circumstances, many questioned the necessity of my visit to the state at this juncture. At the ministry and bureaucratic level, it was suggested that I should not venture into Gujarat at that point of time. One of the main reasons was political. However, I made up my mind that I would go and Rashtrapati Bhavan was in full swing to make this my first visit as President. Vajpayee asked me only one question, ‘Do you consider going to Gujarat at this time essential ?’ I told the PM, ‘I consider it an important duty so that I can be of some use to remove the pain, and also accelerate the relief activities, and bring about a unity of minds, which is my mission, as I stressed in my address during the swearing-in-ceremony.”

What Dr. Kalam goes on to add after this is even more significant.  He writes:

“Many apprehensions were expressed, among them that my visit might be boycotted by the chief minister, that I would receive a cold reception and that there would be agitations from many sides. But, to my great surprise when I landed at Gandhinagar, not only the chief minister, but his whole cabinet colleagues and a large number of legislative members and administrators including the public were present at the airport. I visited twelve areas – three relief camps and nine riot-hit locations where losses were high. Narendra Modi, the chief minister, was with me throughout the visit. In one way, this helped me, wherever I went, the type of petitions and complaints and as he was with me I was able to suggest to him that actions be taken as quickly as possible.”:

I have often felt that in India’s political history no political leader has been as systematically and viciously maligned as Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Bhai Modi. Do not these reports also  reveal a conscious effort at vilification: the Prime Minister’s casual query “Do you consider going to Gujarat at this time essential” as the P.M. wanting to stop the President from going to Gujarat? Dr. Kalam has also referred to apprehensions he had heard that his visit may be boycotted. Dr. Kalam’s actual experience was totally different. Modi and his government enthusiastically cooperated with Dr. Kalam. Yet no newsman thought it worthwhile to report these complimentary observations of his !

L. K. Advani

New Delhi

8 July, 2012

http://blog.lkadvani.in/blog-in-english/if-saudis-can-surrender-abu-jundal-why-can%E2%80%99t-pak-hand-over-dawood-ibrahim