I want to carry all sections with me: PM

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 29. Last evening the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, made a speech at his residence before a gathering of Muslim elders, as part of an exercise to engage the minority community in order to explain the Government's foreign policy approach to the post- September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

This ex-tempore performance went largely unreported, but it was a speech which Mr. Vajpayee should have probably made before a national audience because it turned out to be one of the finest articulation of India's pluralistic ethos and its democratic polity.

What adds an extra edge to an even otherwise thoughtful speech was the fact Mr. Vajpayee was addressing himself to the leaders of Muslim community, which suddenly finds itself having to made a judgment about the correctness of - as well as the motives behind - the Centre's decision to ban the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI); Mr. Vajpayee as well as his audience were painfully aware of the violence and police firing that had taken place 24 hours earlier in his own parliamentary constituency of Lucknow.

Hitting the right note of reasonableness, Mr. Vajpayee directed his remarks against those who justify the use of violence and terror to rectify a perceived wrong. ``If there are grievances, if there is harassment, and even if we assume there is unjust discrimination, is terror the only way to fight this injustice? Is it necessary to kill innocent civilians? Is it warranted that women and children be targeted? ..I can understand if violence is directed against those who perpetrate injustice, though there can be other means to fight them,'' Mr. Vajpayee told his audience.

Recalling his dialogue with the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, at Agra about the futility/efficacy of violence to sort out political differences, Mr. Vajpayee spelt out the raison d'etre for a secular arrangement at home: ``There can be global peace only when we accept that no one can paint the world in one colour. Like the world, India too is a nursery of diversities...but those who may want to paint India in one colour would be disappointed. This would not happen, cannot happen. No one can force another person to abandon his language; everyone will adhere his faith, and no one can force another person to change his religion.'' A message that just may have been intended for the hotheads in the Sangh Parivar.

Invoking the inherent fairness of the democratic system, Mr. Vajpayee questioned the claims made in defence of the use of terror. ``If you have a political agenda, then fight a political battle. Enter the electoral arena, let the votes be counted. I did not become Prime Minister by wielding a sword. Nobody thought I would become Prime Minister.

As long as I am in office, I want to carry all sections with me. Hindu-Muslim unity is our strength; our fight is against terrorism, not against Islam, and we have to watch against those who may want to use Islam for their narrow interests.''

Indirectly addressing himself to the militants in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Vajpayee remarked: ``instead of beheading people, let us count heads.''

And, then, Mr. Vajpayee referred to the ban on SIMI, and invited his audience to reaffirm faith in the rule of law. ``We have to be vigilant against those who raise the bogey of religion or community. They will give battle-cry of Islam. If there is any injustice, there are ways to correct injustice. We have courts, we are a democratic set-up, not a military regime. A Government that is discriminatory would be voted out in the next election.''

What was most remarkable about this performance was that its tone, content, images, values, and emotions were in sharp contrast to the speech he made on national television (on September 14), when Mr. Vajpayee sounded as if he was reading out from a script written by unfeeling bureaucrats.

If in this national appearance his sentiments sounded artificial and his arguments contrived, in the ex-tempore performance Mr. Vajpayee sounded as if meant what he said.

The ultimate test of effective communication. Too bad his media team has failed to put the Prime Minister's performance before a wider audience.

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