Advani plays Hindutva card in Gujarat

In a marked change of stance as compared to the first leg of his Bharat Uday Yatra, Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani played the Hindutva card to the hilt.

Beginning the second leg of his yatra here yesterday, Advani spoke at length about the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and establishing of "Ramrajya" in the country if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was voted back to power in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

If development and good governance were main issues that Advani stressed in the first leg of the yatra that covered the south Indian states, the Hindutva card was in full evidence as the yatra passed through Gujarat.

Addressing a much-hyped but less attended rally, with barely 1,000 people at the starting point of the second leg of the yatra, after visiting the Kirti Mandir here, Advani said, "People say BJP workers are proud to be Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi was also proud to be a Hindu. Swami Vivekananda also thought similarly. Then why should any one object to my identifying with the cause of Hindutva.".

Saying that India's secularism came from its faith in Hindutva, Advani said, "the roots of India's secularism lie in Hindutva that has not allowed the country to become a theocratic state. Even as Pakistan became an Islamic state after partition in 1947, we did not allow any discrimination on the basis of religion. And it is due to our faith in Hindutva."

Advani said some people believed that since the BJP talked of Hindutva, it was not a secular party, but these misconceptions had been removed."

Advani was accompanied by former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, Chief Minister Narendra Modi and BJP state unit chief Rajendrasinh Rana.

Advani assured people that a Ram temple would be built in Ayodha and "Ramrajya" established in the country. "To build a Ram temple, we need the co-operation of people," he added.

As an issue, in his speech development played second fiddle to Hindutva. Emphasising the continuity of economic growth in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime, Advani said even countries like the US had begun to feel threatened by India in the infotech sector.

"With a lot of outsourcing jobs coming to India, the US has begun to feel that outsourcing should be stopped as India is taking away its revenue. This is the change of attitude among the developed countries towards India, thanks to the consistent performance of the Vajpayee government," Advani said.

Advani's Hindutva tone changed slightly as the yatra reached the communally-sensitive Dhoraji town that has a significant Muslim population. Here Advani talked about Irfan Pathan and his contribution in India's recent win in the one-day international cricket series in Pakistan rather than the temple. "If Sehwag can hit 300 plus runs in Pakistan, Vajpayee will regain power with over 300 MPs," he said.

In his speech, Modi referred to the Congress chief as "Sonia Begum", and also criticised Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi as well.

Asserting that the Vajpayee government has strengthened democracy and federalism in the country, Advani said the Prime Minister had announced that there would be free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

"We allowed foreign observers and the international press to see the election process in the state. Despite terrorist presence and attacks on candidates and political leaders, the elections were fair and turnout was 45 per cent," he said.

The NDA has also strengthened federalism where regional parties have been able to develop a national perspective and "we have been able to understand regional perspective better," he said before starting his 4,000-km second phase of the yatra on the Ram Navami day.

Seeking votes on the issues of good governance, development and leadership, Advani took a dig at the Congress saying the party had failed to change "swaraj" to "su-raj". Despite ruling the country for about 50 years, India remained poverty stricken and the Congress failed to provide even basic needs of the people, he said.