TANDA(FAIZABAD): The Bihar chief minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, on Feb.10 called upon secular forces to unite and wage a relentless war against communalism. He was addressing a massive sadbhavana rally here. The audience comprised mainly farmers, weavers and other backward classes. Reminding them of the numerical strength of the OBCs, Hanjans and Muslims “who made up about 90% of the total population” he exhorted them to rally around the secular parties, He said the BJP and the Congress “never had a soft comer for the backwards and the downtrodden and had been supporting the Brahminical order.” He called upon them to is against Brahmanism.
Yaday said the Ayodhya demolition was a “reaction to the success of Mandal” in the Supreme Court. “Two or three days before the shrine was pulled down, I had told the Prime Minister on telephone that the victory of Mandal might incite the RSS parivar to demolish the structure but Rao did not heed my warning,” the chief minister said, adding “one needs guts and political will to govern the country which Rao lacks.”
Raising his voice, he asked “Can one keep quiet when one’s daughter is abducted, just to avoid bloodshed?”
The Bihar chief minister launched a broadside on communalism and Brahmanism. The Congress, he said, was no more in the reckoning and its failure in Ayodhya had made it nonentity.
Talking to newsmen later, he said he would implement the Mandal recommendations in Bihar in accordance with the guidelines of the Supreme Court. He said he would dedicate himself to foster communal harmony and would tour various states in this connection. In March he would visit Bombay, Yadav added.
Asked if the unity of the secular forces would be confined to rallies and meetings only or whether it would involve electoral adjustments as well, Yadav said: “Elections are secondary.. our top priority is to unite the secular forces and foil the designs of diyisive forces.” Yadav said people should also exert pressure on political parties towards this end. Asserting that the BJP would not be able to come revena single Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, he said that even in UP the people were “fed up with the temples issue which had claimed thousands of lives and shattered the state’s economy.”
Yadav had arrived in a state plane at Akbarpur around 1:30 p.m. from where he drove to Tanda, a famous power loom center.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 19, 1993
