The Hindu : Allies raise storm over 'asti yatra', to meet today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 22, 2002

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Allies raise storm over 'asti yatra', to meet today

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI MARCH 21. The allies and the supporting parties of the Vajpayee Government are determined to ensure that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's "provocative plan" to carry the ashes (`asthis') of the Godhra carnage victims in processions throughout the country is not carried out. Some of them have said that if the VHP is not forced to drop its plan they would walk out of the ruling National Democratic Alliance.

These parties will meet informally tomorrow _ the Bharatiya Janata Party has not been invited _ to discuss the issue "threadbare". This, despite the effort of the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office,Vijay Goel, who spent 45 minutes with Devendra Prasad Yadav (Janata Dal-United) trying to pacify him and persuade him to cancel the meeting. "The meeting will take place,'' Mr. Yadav said after the meeting.

After today's near-physical clash between some allies and the BJP MPs in the Lok Sabha, matters have come to a head. "We cannot sit back and watch the VHP ignite flames of communal passions that could engulf the whole country,'' Mr. Yadav, who himself was a party to the verbal duel in the Lok Sabha, said later. Several other leaders of the allied parties _ Raghunath Jha and Prabhunath Singh of the Samata Party, Yerran Naidu, (Telugu Desam Party) spoke of their disapproval of the Sangh Parivar's "plan to communalise the Indian polity".

The meeting is expected to specifically discuss the VHP's plan of `asthi yatra' (carrying of the ashes) and other issues recently raised by the Sangh Parivar, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh resolution saying that the minorities depended for their safety on the goodwill of the majority community. The feeling is growing that every other day the Sangh Parivar outfits are raising one communal issue or another, making provocative statements and raising the communal temperature. "If urgent action is not taken to stop this, the fear is that the country could become a cauldron of communal passions," they feel.

The line-up of NDA allies which are expected to take part in the informal meeting tomorrow is impressive _ the Samata Party, the Trinamool Congress Party, the JD(U), the DMK, the Lok Janshakti, the Indian National Lok Dal, the National Conference, and, perhaps, even the Rashtriya Lok Dal. Above all, the TDP, the supporting party of the Government, is among those actively engaged in getting the meeting going.

Mr. Yadav said that those who swore by the "Hindu dharma" did not seem to know that Hindu rites prescribed that `asthis' (ashes) must always be immersed well before the 13th day of death.

"If they have kept the `asthis' for over 20 days, let them keep them for two-and-a-half years more till the end of the term of this Government,'' he said, perhaps implying that the BJP could use them politically to more advantage just before the next Lok Sabha election if the game-plan was to "polarise'' the Hindu-Muslim votes.

The allies are also pointing out that since the Vajpayee Government came into office there had been only one meeting of the NDA parliamentary party, where Atal Behari Vajpayee was elected the leader (before he was sworn-in as Prime Minister). The complaint is that there has been a lack of coordination between the allies and on every important issue.

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