NEW DELHI: The opposition B.J.P. which some time ago described Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao as the best prime minister after Shastri is increasingly turning belligerent towards the central government.
The party organized a countrywide bandh on October 3 to oppose the government’s liberalization policies on the economic front. Observers felt that the aim of the B.J.P was to show that Ayodhya was not the party’s only concern. The response to the bandh call was far from enthusiastic. However the call evoked a good response from the B.J.P ruled states of Himachal Pradesh Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh and U.P.
The party’s efforts to organize a bandh in West Bengal were met with opposition from C.P.(M) cadres. According to B.J.P. chief Murli Manohar Joshi Communist workers in West Bengal helped the police arrest several B.J.P workers. Some of these workers were taken out of buses and beaten up he charged.
Significantly the BJ.Ps bandh call was in pursuance of the same approach as the C.P (M) has towards the Rao government’s economic policies. But from the C.P (M) attitude towards the bandh it was evident that the leftists would increasingly turn to the Rao government. Thus the ruling party faces no problems as it approaches the parliament later this month.
Meanwhile the R.S.S. led alliance of extremist Hindu organizations is pushing ahead its program to demolish the Babri Masjid and to raise a Hindu temple in its place. The Vishva Hindu Parishad has warmed that it would mobilize a million Hindus towards the end of November to restart work on the temple.
Lal Krishan Advani a senior R.S.S leader in an interview with the R.S.S. mouthpiece Panchjanya admitted that his assessment last year that Rao was the best prime minister after Shastri was wrong and that it had caused him dismay Advani said that when he recently went to Andhra Pradesh he was told that he was unaware of the “capabilities” of Rao and that he was under some delusion.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 13, 1992
