The Hindu : Cricket tour will help restore ties: Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 26, 2004

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National

Cricket tour will help restore ties: Advani

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, MARCH 25. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today expressed joy over the victory of the Indian cricket team in the one-day series against Pakistan and said that the ongoing cricket tour had generated "tremendous interest" in the subcontinent. "It is a small but an important step in restoring normal relations between India and Pakistan,'' he told newspersons here.

Mr. Advani said he had spoken to the Cricket Board president, Jagmohan Dalmia, and captain Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday and congratulated them.

He said the joint statement by the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, in January "has established a framework for a meaningful dialogue between the two countries.''

"Particularly satisfying is the commitment of President Musharraf to prevent Pakistani territory and territory controlled by Pakistan from being used to wage terrorist attacks on India." Harmony between the two countries will have a "tremendous bearing" on peace in Jammu and Kashmir and "good Hindu-Muslim relations" in the country.

Reiterating his allegation that the Congress was "exploiting'' Muslims, Mr. Advani said that since Independence, the community has been exposed to a sustained campaign of hate against the Jana Sangh and the BJP. "Our political opponents painted us as `anti-Muslim' in the very same way the Muslim League depicted the Congress prior to 1947. A reason for arousing fear in the minds of India's Muslim minority was to perpetuate vote bank politics.''

Mr. Advani said that since 1947, the Congress has viewed the Muslim community as a "block vote" and "developed a vested interest in keeping them backward, frightened and aloof.'' It also encouraged the most regressive forces in Muslim society and prevented the community from sharing the benefits of economic development, he said.

Muslim women, in particular, had suffered the most from the "cynical vote bank politics of the Congress.'' The reversal of the Supreme Court judgment in the Shah Bano case was a "well-known example" of the "double standards of the Congress."

"Equally notorious was the complicity of the Congress and the CPI(M) in attempting to statutorily disinherit women in Jammu and Kashmir for marrying a non-State subject.''

During his ongoing Bharat Uday Yatra, he had detected "an open mindedness" on the part of Muslims towards the BJP. "All over the country various Muslim leaders have joined the BJP. Others have expressed their support for the NDA and Mr. Vajpayee.''

"A greater willingness of the Muslim community to engage with the BJP stems from our six-year record.'' He said the Muslims had a major role to play in making the country a developed economy and a global power by 2020. "And I believe the NDA under Mr. Vajpayee can be the facilitator of this process.''

On the Ayodhya issue, Mr. Advani reiterated that the Government had been attempting over the past six months to find a negotiated settlement with the help of the Kanchi Sankaracharya and the Dalai Lama. "A settlement involving both Hindu and Muslim representatives is the most desirable way to resolve the matter.''

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