MADRAS: Former Prime Minister and BJP leader A.B. Vajpayee, last week, declared that there was no dilution in the party’s stand on Hindutva; the short-lived BJP government skirted controversial issues because it was alimenting to form a coalition with other parties. Addressing a press conference in the city, Vajpayee maintained that Hinduism was a way of life, and not a religion. The BJP’s stand on Hindutva was vindicated by the Supreme Court judgment, he said. And so substantiate his point further; Vajpayee pointed out that even Karl Marx had described Bahadur Shah as a Hindu king of India. “I don’t know if the communist know about this.”
The BJP, he said, was not against minorities. “We are only against minoritism.” The party’s demand for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya was not anti-Muslim, Wherever the BJP was in power, and there was a decrease in communal tensions. “We should be judged by our conduct.”
On the United Front government’s decision to refer the Ayodhya issue to the Supreme Court under Art 138(2), he said the issue could be resolved only through dialogue or legislation. The case was already in the court and no useful purpose would be served by referring it to the Supreme Court. On the winding up of the Srikrishna Commission going into the Bombay riots, he said he had expressed his unhappiness on this issue immediately. When the issue was being used to create misunderstanding between two communities, he had appealed to the Maharashtra government to reinstate the Commission and it had done so.
Asked about fears about Hindi imposition, he said the Constitution provided a place for Hindi as a link language, “we believe in persuasion, not imposition.” The BJP wanted regional languages to grow and flourish. Talking of coalition governments, he said both in 1977 and 1989 coalition governments could not last long. “There are better chances for a coalition if there is a big party which decides to join hands with smaller parties.” The largest party in the United Front had only 44 members and depended on outside support from the Congress which had a history of withdrawing support, he said.
Touching on the criticism that he should not have accepted the President’s invitation to form the government without first enlisting the support of other parties for a majority, he said he was given 15 days’ time by the President just to ensure a majority through talks and discussions with other parties. “Otherwise, he would have asked me to prove majority immediately after the swearing-in.” The BJP had approached regional parties for support. In the beginning there were indications that we would be able to get their support, but that did not materialize.” However, he refused to name the parties or citizens the reasons for their not extending support.
Reacting to an observation that the: BJP was getting isolated, he said the party had forged an alliance with the Samaj Party, the Haryana Vikas Party, and the Akali Dal. Admitting that the BJP was unable to obtain support from parties like the DMK and MC, he said the BJP had offered to work on the basis of a common minimum program without referring to controversial issues. “We did not succeed because the vote bank politics was so strong.” he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 12, 1996
