Advani’s Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra Creating Big Impact

By KV LAKSHMANA

NEW DELHI: BJP President Lal Krishna Advani’s patriotic pilgrimage ‘Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra,’ now into its fifth and 10th State, is turning out to be party’s preparations for a snap general elections, apart from creating a nationalist fervor and awakening people against the dangers of corruption.

Evidence of its impact is reflected by the turnout of people along the route of the Yatra through remote villages, which have rarely seen any ‘non-election time’ political activity of this kind by any other political party.

Skillful usage of patriotism as a potent political weapon and presentation of its second rung leadership to the people, emerge as the highlights of Advani’s fourth Rath Yatra, which has little or no religious appeal as his first Ram Rath Yatra provided.

The countless welcome arches, erected in small villages and even by individual villagers, the turnout of villagers to see Advani perched atop his Rath and the smooth progress of the Rath across the country are the reflections of the organizational strengths of the party. One of the main objectives of the Yatra is to overhaul the party machinery and to keep it fighting fit to face the general elections anytime they are held.

The recurring theme of the speeches of Advani and the second rung Central party leadership in General Secretaries Venkiah Naidu and Pramod Mahajan, is the certain demise of Gujral Government and appeal to the voters to effect a change at the Center to enable the BJP create an atmosphere free of hunger, fear and corruption.

The crowd is treated to relatively serious stuff from Advani, who begins by his patriotic message and takes the audience through the history of free India to end with the current economic and political situation of the country.

Be it a public meeting in Salumbar, Bhinder or Chittorgarh or now in Orissa where the Party is forging ahead as the fastest growing popular organization, the sequence of contents of the speeches are the same--the BJP is the only political party celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the country’s independence and presenting a contrast of the pre-occupation of the Congress and other political parties like Janata Dal with their own affairs.

"Congress, which brought the freedom struggle to the forefront in the country, ought to have taken a lead in organizing celebrations of 50 years of independence. But, they have no fursat from their petty squabbles," reminds Pramod Mahajan in his sarcastic style, often drawing cheers.

Mahajan, a much younger man from Maharashtra is growing in stature and is being projected as the up and coming Central leader. He was picked by Vajpayee as Defense Minister in his short-lived Central Government in May last.

Advani also never fails to ask the crowds in remote villages whether they had seen any political meetings by other parties when there are no election. Then in the end he appeals to the people to throw out the present Government and give a chance to BJP and Atal Bihari Vajpayee to provide a durable Government that would really govern. If India lagged behind even small Asian countries which began their developmental journey along with India, then the fault is more of the Raja, he argues with conviction and telling effect.

He goes on to quote a former Raja -- Rajiv Gandhi -- who admitted in a flash of cheerful honesty that 85 per cent of developmental funds were eaten away by the corrupt system and further highlights the role of Sukh Rams to paint the Congress and the villain for eating away public funds.

Though corruption prevails at all levels, it must be attacked from the top, says Advani. The present Government does not even try to face this problem that has become the biggest problem in the progress of the country, he laments.

"Hum Bhookh, Bhaya and Bhrashtachar Mitayenge," (we will eradicate hunger, fear and corruption) promises Advani as he winds up his speech and gets onto the Rath. If not anything the curiosity value of a ‘Bada Admi’ braving the heat, the dust and the unusual vehicle he is riding has the villagers lined up along the route to have his ‘darshan.’

Advani resigning his parliamentary seat to uphold the high moral principles, after he was named in hawala scandal, has raised his prestige and the clean image of BJP in people’s eyes. That he was later acquitted by the High Court has added to his prestige.

Advani completes his two-day journey across Rajasthan and entered Madhya Pradesh where also he was given rousing reception and welcomed enthusiastically all along the route is another evidence of the Party’s message of nationalism, cleaner image and effective contact with the people in a non-election tour reaching far and wide. In Madhya Pradesh Congress administration, headed by Digvijay Singh must be worried as the response drawn by the Rath Yatra was tremendous.

The Yatra route has been charted so as to touch areas where the Bharatiya Janata Party is not adequately represented. Even in Udaipur, which has a Congress member Girija Vyas as its Parliamentary representative, the Yatra was a success going by the crowds that the BJP’s organizational machinery rustled up.

On the road 15 hours every day, Advani has set himself a punishing schedule in mid-summer searing heat atop his custom built rath, a modified DCM-Toyota truck. He will be 70 in a couple months, but Advani copes with the heat and dust as he goes about the countryside covering his most ambitious mass contact program.

He expresses happiness over the response of the people to his Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra.

Advani has expressed confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party will win absolute majority in any elections held here after. For him, the Yatra’s success in South India, is particularly satisfying.

Though Advani feels that the BJP will form the next Government at the Center, he would like to secure more representation for the party from the Southern India also.

Advani believes that it has become fashionable to hold that South holds the key to power, at least the United Front coalition has shown that. But he does not consider winning in South was absolutely essential for winning an absolute majority.

Nevertheless, Advani maintains that perception of South Indians towards the BJP was undergoing important changes, which would manifest itself in general elections.

On his own and his party’s behalf Advani promises that the BJP was not going to disturb the language pattern as English will continue to be the associate official language of the country, the link that was promised by the first Prime Minister of free India, Jawaharlal Nehru. However, he has not abandoned the BJP’s stand that the official Language Hindi will not be treated with the contempt it was being treated with now."

Advani’s clear cut stand on the language issue is more pragmatic; in his opinion the language issue should not be allowed to divide the country--there are other more pressing issues that need more attention and effective response.

To a large extent a distorted view of BJP’s stand had shaped the perception of the South that BJP was a party of the Hindi belt, set to dominate the country at their expense. Other political parties had made efforts to distort the real stand and keep fanning the fire of mistrust toward BJP.

To counter the propaganda of other political parties, Advani declares that in the event of BJP coming to power at the Center, South Indian States need not be afraid that Hindi will be imposed on them. Hindi was never imposed on others, as English was by the British rulers that hindered the growth of all Indian languages. Advani is reconciled to the bilingual status at the Central level, and declares that English will continue to be used as the link language of the Center.

The facts speak for themselves, he says: Way back in the sixties, the Jana Sangh Executive held at Calicut in Kerala for the first time had adopted the two language formula where its presidential speech was printed in English and Hindi.

Party President Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s speech was printed in English and Hindi, a practice we have been following ever since. There in, the Jana Sangh had clarified its language policy. It was decided right then that Hindi will not be forced upon a section of the people against their will. Today, we are reconciled to the bilingualism at the national-level. We are not against Angreji (English) but are against Angrejiat (English mentality). We are against being an Anglophile, says Advani.

Advani is satisfied with the response of the Yatra so far. He says it has been tremendous and at places even greater than the response generated by the highly emotional Ram Rath Yatra. What is more satisfying is that people seemed to be interested in what I have to say all along my tour so far. That they are waiting on the road despite heat is a testimony to their interest in what I or my party stand for.

He said: I am particularly encouraged by the response my Yatra has generated in South India, where because of propaganda by other political parties people perceive the BJP as an essentially North Indian phenomenon.

He admitted one of the reasons for this perception is the fact that BJP went to the South quite late. In the initial stages of the party formation ever since Jana Sangh days, concentration was in Northern states. And now that we have increased our visible presence and activities, the public is responding. But the reasons for the party’s relative failure in South is also because of the false propaganda of other political parties.

However, he would not blame the people for believing the propaganda as people by and large are good natured and want to trust political parties. It is after they come to know the real issues and the real faces of politicians they decide who is dependable and telling the truth and who is not.

In south India, polity has been polarized between Congress and the respective regional formations like the AIADMK, DMK, TDP etc. The electoral system that we have adopted does not give an easy entry to a third party, if polarization has already taken place.

If in Tamil Nadu anti-Hindi riots was one of the reasons, in Andhra Pradesh, NT Rama Rao was able to give a personality nucleus to anti-Congressism. But in Karnataka, the BJP has been able to achieve a breakthrough and Advani said he was confident that the BJP will break new areas now to achieve absolute majority in general elections, whenever they are held. The BJP is not a party of only North India, it is a national party that is fast growing and getting acceptance all over India.

About the next general elections Advani’s prediction is end of this year or early next year.

Winning and forming a Government are not as important as providing good governance as far as the BJP is concerned. The BJP may win despite lack of big support from other sections such as Muslims and the Dalits. But ideally we would like to have the support of all these sections and in several places we have received such support in good measure.

Advani was asked about how is his party fighting the propaganda of other political parties that BJP is a North Indian Party?

Advani replied: Till five years ago, situation in the four Southern States was different with the BJP having little or no representation at all.

Now we have a strong base in Karnataka and are trying to forge ahead in Andhra Pradesh. BJP in Karnataka is today a force to reckon with. I hope our efforts in other three States will also yield results.

I am confident if Lok Sabha polls are held today, de-linked from Assembly polls, the BJP will make notable gains in Southern States.

This is very likely because, even though the respective State Governments there are expected to last full five years, few would be willing to concede a five year term to the United Front Government.

In these States, it will be the BJP which will be trying to fill the Congress ‘space,’ as the Congress is on the decline. We will consider new allies but are not going to seek them out.

There is a strong sense of disenchantment with the Central Government and the group of parties that form the United Front.

The less said about the Congress the better. Only the BJP is perceived as the only ray of hope by the people. This is also visible from the response my Yatra is drawing.

Advani does not think the success of his current Yatra will really unite the United Front and force the Congress to rethink about any adventurous moves and extend the life of the Central Government?

He said the success of his Yatra will not make any difference to the inherent weaknesses of the United Front Government. The organizational polls in the Congress and the Janata Dal will also contribute their might to the differences within the anti-BJP forces adding to the instability of the Government. Then there is the Women’s Reservation Bill. The differences within the UF are bound to increase and no amount of efforts by the UF or the Congress can save the Government. Mid-term polls are a certainty, it is only a matter of how soon.

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