PATHANKOT: Bharatiya Janata Party president Murli Manohar Joshis Ekta Yatra through Punjab failed to stir most people out of their homes even as Joshi packed more and more stridency in his speeches. The response from Punjabi Hindus was also lukewarm at best while the Sikhs generally kept away from his meetings.
The route of the Yatra which seems to have been carefully chalked out keeping in mind the areas of strength for the BIP had only sparse crowds with most of those who turned out to receive Joshis motorcade being the party workers and sympathizers themselves.
As if rated by this and later by the firing on the advance party at Phagwara the BIP president went on heightening the pitch of his attack on the government and militants. Cheers came only when he assailed the militants while pointing out the glorious contribution of Guru Gobind Singh and the Sikh Panth. Those cheering him were either party workers themselves or Punjabi Hindus a large section of who were traders.
The most familiar sight among the route was that the BJP motorcade would stop at a roadside bazaar and workers would distribute the party journal Pancitanya Meanwhile a small crowd gathered. Joshi and others delivered their speeches and the caravan moved on.
But as they neared Phagwara the news of militants firing on the advance party spread and the motorcade stopped immediately. The IP leaders who had until then been maintaining that they had accepted security escort only because of pressure from the government fell in line to form a convoy with heavy security around. It was then that Murli Manohar Joshi settled for a vitriolic attack on the militants and the government’s handling of the Punjab problem. The hard-line had become harder though the scheduled public meeting at Phagwara was abandoned. Party workers had already begun talking about how this leg of the journey tad fallen below their expectations. More important some of time was also grumbling about how they were losing precious time to prepare for the elections while the Yatra failed to help in that regard What seems to have surprised many was that even the news of the shoot-out did not elicit either much of a reaction or sympathy. At least it was not visible.
The turnout did not improve substantially even after the entourage had crossed into Jammu in Lakhampur village where the founder of the Jan Sangh Shyama Prasad Mukerjee had been arrested in 1953 while trying to march on Kashmir there was a small group of people waiting 1o welcome the Fkta Yatra. The BIP president interestingly had once again taken as he tone
Article extracted from this publication >> February 7, 1992
