Date:21/01/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/01/21/stories/2003012104241100.htm

National

BJP resurrects old agenda for elections

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 20. The old agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — Ram Janmabhoomi, a uniform civil code and abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution — is to be resurrected and used forcefully in the round of the coming Assembly elections. A decision on this was taken at a party meeting of the State leaders from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi.

"The BJP is clear and unequivocal in its adherence to its own ideology," the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, said while addressing leaders from the four States. While the party was committed to the National Democratic Alliance agenda for governance at the Centre, in the States it would pursue its own agenda vigorously.

The "own agenda" was later spelt out by the party spokesperson, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, as a Ram temple at Ayodhya, introducing a uniform civil code and scrapping Article 370. This, together with issues such as religious conversion, illegal migration from Bangladesh, infiltration from Pakistan and terrorism, would form the core of the party's campaign in the coming elections.

Party presidents of all the four State units, other key leaders and the five national general secretaries who attended the meeting were told to prepare a list of incidents of atrocities against Dalits and the other weaker sections, corruption and lack of development in these States so that they could also be highlighted during the campaign, which will begin in right earnest now and will carry on for the 300 days before the elections are due.

The three main "ideological issues" of the BJP have no relevance to the State Governments as they all need constitutional amendments or Parliamentary sanctions; nevertheless, the party seems keen on projecting them in order to project Hindutva. Asked how these could be implemented even if the BJP were to win all the State elections, Mr. Naqvi did not respond. He said "these are national issues and are relevant in all States".

Apparently, the question of Raman Singh or Vasundhara Raje exiting their ministerial offices as they had been appointed party presidents in their States did not come up. "One man, one post is not a rule in the party, it was only a tradition," Mr. Naqvi said when asked how they could continue to occupy two positions each.