The Hindu : Saffron brigade pursuing fascist agenda: CPI(M)

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 28, 2002

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Saffron brigade pursuing fascist agenda: CPI(M)

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 27. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) today accused the RSS-led saffron brigade of pursuing its efforts to convert the secular democratic republic of India into a ``fascist Hindu Rashtra'', with the BJP seeking to reap political benefits out of ``bloody communal confrontation''.

Reading signals from recent events, including the appointment of Vinay Katiyar, who was accused in the conspiracy leading to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, as the new BJP chief of Uttar Pradesh, the party said the developments only confirm the "serious danger of a fascist assault that seeks to destroy India's secular democratic fabric''. In an editorial in the latest CPI (M) organ, People's Democracy, the party said its earlier warning that Gujarat was only the testing ground for the saffron brigade's ulterior plans was now being borne out.

The elevation of Mr. Katiyar was a "forewarning of yet another Narendra Modi in the making. Soon it appears that we shall have such persons in each State," the report said and pointed out that almost simultaneously, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had gone back on its assurance to abide by the court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute with the Kanchi Sankaracharya "justifying their volte face'' due to the Government's refusal to hand over the acquired land.

"An insidious campaign that this was not done because of the opposition from the Babri Masjid Action Committee accompanies such double-speak. Nowhere it is even mentioned that it was the Supreme Court which restrained — and correctly so — the Vajpayee Government from parting with any of the acquired land till the final disposal of the cases in the court. The reason for not taking cognisance of this simple fact reflects the saffron brigade's refusal to accept the authority of the judiciary and, thus, of the Indian Constitution.

Mr. Vinay Katiyar has gone one step further by stating that `Ram temple is very much there; although small. The task is to build it massively'. Such utter contempt for the law of the land can only mean greater dangers for the secular democratic Indian Republic," the editorial said.

The VHP tirade against the minorities and the RSS threat of a `Hindu Rashtra', the CPI (M) said, come a week after the presidential candidate of the BJP-led NDA filed his nomination.

It said that if a confirmation was ever needed that A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's candidature will be used as a `smoke screen' by the saffron brigade to whitewash its role in Gujarat, this was it.

The party was also critical of the Congress for having supported Dr. Kalam's candidature by stating that despite being the main Opposition party, it has chosen to play "a role of being neither the ruling party nor the Opposition in this affair''. It was equally critical of the BJP allies in the NDA. "(They) have become appendages of the saffron brigade'' and said that the Vajpayee Government having lost the people's support on every other count "increasingly functions in its true colours — as the political arm of the RSS''.

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