BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY

Bharat Suraksha Yatra
April 6 - May 10, 2006

Statement issued by

At a joint press conference in New Delhi on April 4, 2006

It gives us great pleasure to be able to interact with friends from the media on the occasion of the scheduled launch of the Bharat Suraksha Yatra from April 6. We will begin the Yatra on the same day from two different places (Shri L.K. Advani from Dwaraka in Gujarat and Shri Rajnath Singh from Jagannath Puri in Orissa) and, after covering 17 states in 35 days, converge in Delhi on the same day (May 10).

For the BJP, the dates for the start and conclusion of the Yatra are highly significant. April 6 is Ram Navami, the day Lord Ram was born. It is also the Founding Day of the BJP. Our party was born on this very day in 1980. May 10 is sacred in a different way. It marked the beginning of India's First War of Independence in 1857. In his inspiring book on this glorious chapter in India's history, Veer Savarkar writes that those were the days when "Hindus and Mahomedans proclaimed that India was their country and that they were all brethren, the days when Hindus and Mahomedans unanimously raised the flag of national freedom at Delhi. Be those grand days ever memorable in the history of Hindustan!" Incidentally, the 150th anniversary of this glorious chapter in India's history begins on May 10 this year. It is, therefore, a matter of immense satisfaction for us that the Yatra, before reaching Delhi, will halt at Meerut where homage will be paid to the martyrs of 1857.

The five-fold message of the Yatra: The Bharat Suraksha Yatra is one Yatra with one message, albeit undertaken by two persons covering two convergent routes. And the message, as the accompanying leaflet describes in sufficient detail, is five-fold: To safeguard National Security -- from jehadi terrorism and left-wing extremism; To defend National Unity -- from the divisive politics of minorityism, and especially from the large-scale illegal immigration from Bangladesh; To rescue Governance -- from corruption and criminalization in high places; To save Parliamentary Democracy -- from institutional misuse, revival of authoritarianism of the Emergency era, and Congress party's fake culture of "sacrifice"; To protect the Economic Security of the Aam Aadmi, Garib and Kisans -- from the assaults of massive price rise, unemployment and debt.

It should be clear from this that the BJP has a broad vision of what constitutes ‘Bharat Suraksha'.

In the past few weeks we have been frequently asked one question: "Why another Yatra? Why now?" The leaflet that has been distributed to you answers this question. Here we shall confine our comments to a few crucial issues.

Politics of minorityism disrupts and divides the Indian Nation: A major trigger for the Yatra came from the divisive and dangerous politics of "minorityism" that the Congress-led UPA government has been pursuing, almost as its raison d'etre, during its less than two years of existence. The sole purpose for doing so is to consolidate the "minority vote-bank". Examples of "minorityism" abound: Muslim head-count in the Armed Forces; inaction amounting to governmental collusion in the face of massive "demographic invasion" from Bangladesh; Communal reservations in jobs and education, which, if accepted, will undoubtedly lead to the demand for communal reservations in security forces, judiciary, Parliament and State Legislatures; and a soft approach towards jehadi terrorism and an unwillingness to counter the ideology that fuels it.

Indeed, we see a certain competition within the constituent parties of the UPA as to who pursues the politics of "minorityism" most aggressively. While competing, they also sometimes collaborate -– as in the case of the unanimous resolution calling for the release of Abdul Nasser Madani, the main accused in the serial bomb blasts in Coimbatore in 1998, which killed 58 people. (Shri Advaniji, who had gone to Coimbatore for the election campaign on that day, was the main target in this conspiracy.)

Our adversaries' perverse propaganda against the BJP: We wish to make it clear that the BJP does not associate terrorism with any particular religion, nor do we suspect any particular community to be a supporter of terrorism. Our adversaries' propaganda in this regard against our party is false, perverse and self-serving. When we use the term "jehadi terrorism", we only refer to a certain extremist interpretation of Islam, which as many eminent Muslims themselves have repeatedly bemoaned, brings a bad name to a great religion.

We also wish to make it clear that the BJP is neither against minorities – Muslims or others – nor against any minority faith in India. We respect all faiths, including Islam. India belongs equally to all Indians, irrespective of their caste or creed. However, we shall not mince words in sounding a note of warning: The politics of "minorityism", if unchecked, will prove a disaster for the Indian Nation. Also, what needs to be understood by all concerned is that, far from helping the minorities, it actually undermines their development and wellbeing.

We are proud of India's pluralism and diversity, including religious diversity. The BJP believes in the secular ideal of ‘Sarva Panth Samabhav' and rejects the idea of a theocratic state. We espouse the inviolability of the religious freedoms of all faiths. However, we are firmly against the notion of "majority" and "minority" gaining roots in the political life of India. This divisive mindset jeopardizes India as one united, integral and harmonious Nation.

If communalization of foreign policy is bad, can communalization of domestic policy be good?: We have recently come across reports that Shrimati Sonia Gandhi, in a signed article in the official organ of the Congress party, has regretted the fact that "some political parties are trying to communalise foreign policy for short term electoral gains." Calling it "an insult to our minorities", she has reportedly said, ''We do not think that religion can or should be the matrix for national interest in a country as linguistically and religiously pluralistic as India.''

No Indian can disagree with this view. At the same time, we urge the Congress president and her party to introspect on whether it is "wrong to communalise India's "foreign policy" but right to "communalize India's domestic policy". We would like them to do some soul-searching on whether it is in the national interest for "religion to be the matrix" in matters of reservations, infiltration from Bangladesh, census in the Armed Forces, etc. The day the Congress party honestly accepts that "communalisation of domestic policy" in not in India's national interest, and reverses its politics of "minorityism", a firm foundation will have been laid for the two principal national parties in India's bipolar polity – BJP and Congress – to make common cause in a very wide area of politics and governance.

Of course, we have also come across a report, the very next day, of the Congress spokesman denying that Shrimati Sonia Gandhi's comments were aimed at the Left parties. If the comments were not aimed at the Left parties, the BJP would like to know who else they were aimed at. As everyone knows, the two communist parties organised massive anti-Bush demonstrations recently by mobilising Muslim masses whose main grouse – and understandably so – was their hurt feelings over the blasphemous Danish cartoons. It appears that the Congress party has already backtracked on a positive statement made by its president.

Government committing contempt of the Court and the Constitution: In a historic judgment in July 2005, the Supreme Court struck down IMDT as being illegal and unconstitutional and said that the provisions of the Act have been deliberately designed to help the infiltrators. The apex court's judgement was a clear and total vindication of the BJP's stand.

The judgement stated, "A deep analysis of the IMDT Act and the Rules made thereunder would reveal that they have been purposely so enacted or made so as to give shelter or protection to illegal migrants who came to Assam from Bangladesh on or after 25th March 1971, rather than to identify and deport them." How effective was the IMDT in dealing with this problem? The Court noted that only 3,10,759 inquiries were initiated under the Act. Of these, only 10,015 were declared as illegal migrants. And what was the number of those who were deported upto 30th April 2000? Only 1481!

The Supreme Court's conclusion was unambiguous: "There can be no manner of doubt that the State of Assam is facing ‘external aggression and internal disturbance' on account of large scale illegal migration of Bangladeshi nationals." The apex court has not only scrapped the IMDT Act as unconstitutional. It has also cast a constitutional duty upon the Central Government to "to take all measures for protection of the State of Assam from such external aggression and internal disturbance as enjoined in Article 355 of the Constitution."

But how has the UPA government fulfilled this duty? Instead of adhering to the Supreme Court's directive to use the provisions of the Foreigners' Act to "effectively deal with" the infiltrators, the government on February 10 amended the Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 1964 and introduced into it all the nefarious provisions of the IMDT Act, thereby making it, for all practical purposes, another legal protection for Bangladeshi infiltrators.

The Prime Minister has said recently in Assam that his government would not compromise with infiltration from Bangladesh. The statement is hypocritical. Dr. Manmohan Singh has not offered a word of explanation as to why his government has tried to re-introduce the IMDT Act through the backdoor. The Congress president has also, in a recent election speech in Assam, defended the amendment to the Foreigners Act. In view of this duplicity, we charge the UPA government with not just compromising but actually surrendering to the demographic invasion from Bangladesh. The UPA government's conduct, besides, is tantamount to committing contempt of both the Court and the Constitution.

As far as the BJP is concerned, our stand is very clear: The question of harassing and deporting Assamese Muslims does not arise at all. They must be given 100% protection because they are Indian nationals. But there has to be 0% protection to infiltrators from Bangladesh.

BJP's concerns over the Indo-US nuclear cooperation deal: Our Party views with serious concern reports about political hurdles in America for the recently concluded Indo-US nuclear cooperation deal. If these reports are true, the Prime Minister has much to explain to the Nation on a matter of utmost importance to India's national security. Our apprehensions about the agreement having been concluded in haste and without adequate homework appear to be coming true. The BJP reserves its detailed comments on this sensitive issue to a later date.

Vande Mataram!