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Advani’s Induction Opens A Pandora’s Box
by
Mumtaz Hamid Rao
Islamabad – The tetchy choice of assimilating Lal Krishna Advani to a key slot – the deputy prime
minister – has factually opened ‘a Pandora’s box ‘for the piteous minority of India in meticulous and
the billion-plus populace in broad-spectrum due to lunacy of this guy for envy and ache for junk of
arsenal instead of curiosity towards the vital needs of the mankind, dwelling in his ancestral soil,
by now overcast by billows of burgeoning perils because of the eyeballs standoff of the troops of
India and Pakistan, as an upshot of New Delhi’s cantankerous mind-set vis-à-vis the ground realities,
a prologue for a lifelong peace in this part of the Earth planet.
As an architect of the war hysteria, Advani is – by and large - ostracized in every pragmatic circle
of India even in the Congress Party which ruled for decades with an antagonistic facade towards
Pakistan, perceptibly a bit slighter than the one adopted by the fanatic Hindu party, the BJP. Prima
facie, by inserting LKA in the momentous chair of deputy premiership – the off-colour Atal Behari
Vajpayee has – in a way – got his days of headship numbered. This conjecture seeks an impetus from a
unsullied statement of Ram Lal Pisvas, an opposition leader hailing from the noted political party
Lok Jan Shankti, –once the Finance Minister – who has said in Bhopal that ‘only a flimsy prime
minister requires an aide. NDTV quotes him as saying ‘this is an inane step.’ Ram Vilas ‘in the
gone-by era, whenever such a gauge was applied, it culminated into the ouster of the sitting premier.
‘History stands bystander to this reality’, he remarks. Akin observations are in the offing from oth!
ers including the Nehru family-created Congress party. The medley of hawkish LKA as deputy PM is a
tip-off that India’s superseding party is peeling its laissez-faire icon in favour of hardliners of
Hindu xenophobia ahead of general elections listed for 2004.
At the same time, it seems that this is an initiation of a toning up manoeuvre within the BJP. Hence
Advani’s appointment sluices trepidation about the line of succession in the BJP after (Vajpayee) and
swells his (Advani’s) seize on power.
The re- configuration of the post of deputy PM – and that too for someone blatantly like a pugnacious
Advani - marks the beginning of the BJP shedding its liberal image to return to its Hindu jingoistic
agenda. This is conspicuous from the fact that BJP had of late appointed hardliner Hindu MP, Vinay
Katiyar, to skull the party in erratic Uttar Pradesh state.
An Indian analyst, Kiran Saxena, has endorsed this view by saying that ‘the BJP had given notice it
was preparing to shed its liberal image for a more hardline stance when the Vajpayee government
refused to sack Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the Gujarat state for his inability to control
sectarian violence.’
This is pertinent to catalogue that the BJP now rules only four states of India whereas the main
opposition, Congress party rules 14 states. Obviously due to this scenario, BJP contemplates to
translate the ‘wicked and husky design within the party that ‘it needs to return to its wacky agenda
of Hindutva -aggressive bigotry - to exert a pull on to the voters.
May be it is known that born in November 1927 in Karachi, Advani began his political career as an
activist of the Hindu extremist club Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) — the ideological parent of
the BJP.
Advani, (74) the apparent heir of the 77plus old Vajpayee is hawkish on relations with Pakistan and
has always been a hard-line crusader of the Hindu renaissance of the BJP.
Advani is known as an ultra-rightist Hindu with criminal record of anti – minority policies ever
since the dawn of Independence from the British Empire in 1947. A case of his knot with a criminal
assault on the Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, by now is known worldwide. His
part in the wrecking the fêted Babari Mosque in 1990 – which took over 2000 lives along with the
obliteration of chattels worth billions - and his bolshie blessings to Chief Minister Modi of Gujarat
for the anti-Muslim posture is well-documented. His elevation to the office of Deputy PM is, thus a
symptom of India’s glide towards fanaticism, loutishness and stiffness chiefly towards the minorities
and to be more explicit towards the Muslims. This is certainly a perilous development for peace in
the region because Advani has always been antagonistic towards Pakistan and to quote an instance it
was he who had sabotaged the Agra Summit by axing the joint declaration. The BJP has ostensi!
bly learnt no lesson from its mortifying defeat in the State Elections wherein it was badly routed by
the voters who had reacted sharply against Advani’s extremist policies towards Christians and Muslims
on the one hand and against Pakistan on the other.
With Advani as No. 2 of Vajpayee, the ferocious Indian designs- prompted by the dynamics of war
hysteria - unleashed in the first instance by the lashing tongues of the Indian hard liners are now
well identified to the judicious world.
The Indian electronic media – once personally controlled by Advani as Minister for Information in the
Morarji Desai’s regime - is carrying on hostile propaganda crusade against Pakistan. It is in fact a
cognisant strive – authored by Advani & Co - to swell the war hysteria through the utterances of the
partakers of news and current affairs slots of the Indian media who have been breathing fire and
spitting malevolence and venom. India is out to malign Pakistan in one way or the other. This typical
Indian tendency based on acrimony was climaxed to a large - scale deployment of the Indian troops
along the borders of Pakistan and the LoC in Kashmir.
Buoyed by the results of coercive diplomacy, India continues with its stonewalling tactics, with
Vajpayee – once again - responding unfavorably to Pakistan's truthful offer for withdrawal of troops
to their peace-time locations to de-escalate the tense situation.
At the same time, Vajpayee’s ruling out of a war with Pakistan is nullified by his corollary that the
Indian army will not be withdrawn from the borders. The hundreds of thousands of troops, deployed
along the frontiers cannot be measured as a statement of peace by any stretch of imagination. War,
even if not underway, is predictable as long as the armies are in a pose of conflict. Only the
withdrawal of troops can symbolize the return of peace, which will be far more eloquent than any
avowal.
The other point Vajpayee has lately made that he was willing to hold talks with Pakistan on all
issues including Jammu and Kashmir affected a similar contradiction. The stipulation that "I need the
right atmosphere and cross-border terrorism must end first" knocks out whatever hopes were raised for
resumption of a dialogue. It was no more than a rehash of what he has been saying for the last
several months, except that it was accompanied with a watered down promise of’ no war’.
The most that can be read into Vajpayee's sheaf of promises is that he is sending a message to
Washington that all is quiet along the border and war was not on the cards at present. Probably this
is in response to the calls by US and the caucus of world's eight most powerful states for talks to
resolve the disputes between India and Pakistan. It is unlikely that he really meant what he said in
astonishingly agreeable tones.
Now it is obvious from the induction of Advani as his second-in-command (almost the defacto PM) who
does not leave a jiffy to malign Pakistan one way or the other. How can one believe the adamant New
Delhi warlords who are out to put the peace in the South Asian region in peril through their acts and
deeds? Yet the verity remains intact that India can no more hoodwink the world which is – perceptibly
– now vociferously aware of India’s malevolent designs towards Pakistan especially in the wake
Advani’s elevation, which candidly depicts India’s hostilities as well as vogue for hegemony ‘ to do
anything ‘ even if a big cataclysm is in the offing.
The author is a noted journalist, political analyst and ex-Director News Pakistan TV.
Source:
by courtesy & © 2002 Mumtaz Hamid Rao
by the same
author:
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