We've set the agenda for the Nation in the past.
Now we are doing so again with the agenda of 'Bharat Suraksha'
I resume my Bharat Suraksha Yatra from Hyderabad, after a two-day break necessitated by my having to participate in the BJP’s election campaign in Kerala. Hyderabad strikes a special emotional chord in me in the context of the theme of my Yatra. For it is here that independent India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, to whom goes the credit for integrating over 500 princely states into the Indian Union, demonstrated his iron resolve to break the back of the Nizam’s sinister separatist plan to merge Hyderabad with Pakistan.
It is my pledge that the BJP will show the same iron resolve, combined with Sardar Patel’s futuristic vision for a strong, united and prosperous India, to deal effectively with every threat to ‘Bharat Suraksha’.
In my long political life of 55 years, I am proud to belong to a party – both to the Bharatiya Janata Party and to its predecessor, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh – that has set the agenda for the Nation at every critical point in India’s post-independence history. Let me recount some of the major milestones:
1948-53: Agenda for the complete integration of Jammu & Kashmir with the Indian Union, led by Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, with the rousing slogan – “Ek Desh Mein Do Vidhan, Do Pradhan, Do Nishan, Nahin Chalenge Nahin Chalenge (No to two Constitutions, two Rashtrapatis and two Flags in the same country.) Dr. Mookerjee, founder of the Jana Sangh, became a martyr to this cause in 1953.
1973-75: Agenda for corruption-free government, through a mass movement led by Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan, in which lakhs of youth and students participated.
1975-77: Agenda for the protection of democracy. Jana Sangh became a vanguard in the movement led by JP against the Emergency and for the restoration of democracy.
1989-90: Agenda for the struggle between genuine secularism vs. pseudo-secularism, with the BJP lending support to the Ayodhya movement, which laid the foundation for transforming India from a unipolar polity into a bipolar polity.
1997: Agenda for Good Governance, through the Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra to commemorate the golden jubilee of India’s independence, in which a call was given for converting Swaraj (self-governance) into Su-raj (good governance).
1998-2004: Agenda, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for –
-
Formation of the first stable anti-Congress coalition;
-
Making India a Nuclear Weapons State;
-
India’s accelerated development through highway connectivity, rural roads connectivity, telephone and internet connectivity, river connectivity, and connectivity with the Indian Diaspora, all as party of the larger vision of making India a Developed Nation by 2020;
-
Restoration of the political process in Jammu & Kashmir through free and fair elections;
-
Formation of three new states – Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal – through an amicable and consensual process, which was for the first time in the history of the linguistic reorganization of states;
-
Dialogue for normalization of ties with Pakistan, after making Islamabad give a public commitment on not allowing Pakistani or Pak-controlled territory for terrorist activities aimed against India.
Now with the Bharat Suraksha Yatra, my Party President Shri Rajnath Singh and I have once again set the agenda of ‘Bharat Suraksha’ – comprehensive security for the country and the common man.
Through this, we have brought to the centre of national debate vital issues such as our adversaries’ “politics of competitive minorityism” which hurts both the Nation and the minorities themselves; threats to internal security from jehadi terrorism and naxalism; threat to national unity from the Congress-assisted demographic invasion from Bangladesh; threat to the economic security of kisans and aam aadmi; threat to our democratic institutions from the revival of the authoritarian mindset in the Congress party; and threat to Good Governance from corruption and criminalization of polity.
Appeal to political parties: |
Given the enormity of the challenges under the broad concept of ‘Bharat Suraksha’, I am acutely aware that no single political party, including the BJP, can surmount them on its own strength. I, therefore, appeal to one and all in the Indian political establishment to honestly introspect and ask themselves whether their policies and actions square up with the imperatives of ‘Bharat Suraksha’. I feel that all should make earnest efforts to enlarge the area of common agreement, and cooperate with one another on that basis for the larger good of the Nation. It is in this spirit that I had welcomed Shrimati Sonia Gandhi’s recent criticism of the communist parties on communalization of India’s foreign policy. It is in the same spirit that I had urged her party to abandon the far more dangerous course of communalization of India’s domestic policy. I am disappointed, but not in the least surprised, at the Congress party’s negative reaction to my call.
In this context, I am constrained to comment on the negative signals that have emanated from the meeting between Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and a delegation of Muslim organizations led by Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid in New Delhi yesterday. I find the Prime Minister’s silence on the illegal immigration from Bangladesh and demand for reservations for Muslims in government jobs to be ominous. As far as the alleged harassment of Muslims in Assam is concerned, I would like to reiterate my Party’s clear stand: “100% protection to Assamese Muslims, but 0% protection for Bangladeshi infilitrators.”
Appeal to all Patriotic Indians: |
My appeal, however, is not limited to political parties. Again, given the enormity of the challenges under the broad concept of ‘Bharat Suraksha’, there is an urgent need for all sections of Patriotic India to raise their voice of protest against every assault on national security, national unity and people’s welfare, and also to lend their hand of participation in every corrective action. The flame of idealism in politics and governance cannot be allowed to be extinguished by the destructive winds of corruption and vote-bank politics. Now is the time to rekindle Mahatma Gandhi’s universal ideals and the lofty vision presented by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya’s ‘Integral Humanism’ and JP’s ‘Navnirman’ movement.
To Write Comment Please Login
.gif)
