Maharashtra BJP President Nitin Gadkari tells MAKARAND GADGIL that the Malegaon blasts probe aims at appeasing minorities
Organisations from the Sangh Parivar, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have come forward to help the Malegaon blasts accused. Don’t you think it is a dangerous trend to label terrorists as Hindus and Muslims and then come in support of those who are ideologically closer to you?
It is the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government in the state that is trying to label terrorists as Hindus or Muslims. If the Malegaon blasts accused are found guilty, hang them. But what is going on is persecution and a conspiracy to defame Hindu religious leaders and the military in the name of investigation. All this is being done to show the minorities that how fair the government is when it comes to dealing with Hindu organisations as well.
The Congress-NCP combine knows it has lost credibility even among the minorities. Everyone is suffering from its misrule of nine years. The electricity situation has gone from bad to worse, with rural areas facing power cuts of up to 18 hours a day; more than 2,500 farmers have committed suicide; rotten food grains unfit for human consumption are being imported and distributed through the public distribution system (PDS); and there is a complete collapse of infrastructure in urban areas.
Even the Wakf land has not been spared by these self- styled saviours of minorities. Wakf properties are those properties which are donated by the Muslims for betterment of their community, but the politicians from both these parties have grabbed even these. We had organised a state-wide agitation over this issue. Though the government had ordered an inquiry into this, its report is still under wraps.
In such a situation, seeing no other alternative, the Congress-NCP combine is trying to woo back minorities by labelling some Hindu organisations and religious leaders as terrorists.
So you see a political conspiracy behind the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit and others?
Yes, but isn’t it obvious? Otherwise, how one month before the arrests of these accused, both NCP president Sharad Pawar and Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, while delivering speeches from the party forum, could say: “Terrorists are not only Muslims and the role of Hindu organisations in bomb blasts also needs to be probed.” These statements clearly gave a lead to the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on the track it should follow in carrying out its investigations.
And results of the subsequent investigation also show that the police have no concrete evidence to back their theory. Otherwise, why Pragya Singh’s narco test was carried out three times? Everyone knows narco tests are carried out to collect the corroborative evidence, and corroborative evidence is collected to back material or circumstantial evidence you have collected. However, as the ATS does not have any primary evidence, it is subjecting the sadhvi to repeated narco tests to get some clues.
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Are you accusing the Congress and NCP of playing politics of minority appeasement on the issue of bomb blasts?
Earlier, secularism in our country meant appeasement of minorities, but now it has got a more vicious meaning - appeasement of terrorists. The Congress-NCP combine, which is hell-bent on proving links of Hindu organisations to the bomb blasts in Malegaon, is dithering over hanging Afzal Guru whose death penalty has been confirmed by the Supreme Court. This clearly shows that there is no other motive but to woo minorities by framing some Hindu organisations in the bomb blasts case.
Recently, Maharashtra was in the news for some other wrong reasons also. A number of attacks on north Indians took place in Mumbai and other cities of the state. What is your party’s stand on the issue of giving priority to Maharashtrians in jobs?
Let me remind you that linguistic states were created with the idea of protecting and promoting various languages and cultures which are spoken and practised in our country. Therefore, there is no harm in demanding priority for locals in the jobs. However, we condemn the methods and language used by the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena and its chief Raj Thackeray. We have no issues if MNS carries out its agitation in a peaceful manner.
Thousands of candidates from outside the state come to appear for examinations held to fill government posts in Maharashtra, with local candidates numbering not even few hundreds. Such a situation is bound to create tension. The Congress and NCP, with the help of people like Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, are deliberately trying to create tension and law and order problems in the state as they feel that the MNS’ violent agitation will eat into Shiv Sena’s vote bank, and the migrants will have no option but to back the Congress-NCP alliance.
It is a general perception that the MNS agitation is going to cost the BJP more dearly than Shiv Sena, especially in Mumbai, as your party’s candidates in Mumbai are usually from non-Maharashtrian communities.
It is a figment of our ‘well-wishers’’ imagination and I wish they continue to live in their paradise till the results of the elections are out.
The relationship between the BJP and Shiv Sena has seen lots of ups and downs in the last four years. There had been serious differences with the Sena over issues like its support to the candidature of Pratibha Patil for the Presidential election, declaration of support to Sharad Pawar if he is in the race for the prime minister’s post and even on the issue of contesting by-elections. But all that is past. For the last year or so, the relationship has been perfectly cordial. Sena has clarified that the decision to support Pratibha Patil was an exception and that the party remains with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray has also declared his support to the candidature of L K Advani for the prime minister’s post.