NEW DELHI, 21 February — The opposition parties are up in arms against Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for comments on the Muslim vote.
They have questioned the prime minister’s reference to the Muslim vote in his election address during the final phase of campaigning for 166 seats in Uttar Pradesh Assembly which go to the polls today.
Warned by exit poll results predicting a dismal performance by the prime minister’s BJP, Vajpayee did not refrain from exploiting the Hindu card. Addressing an election rally in Varanasi, this week, Vajpayee said that BJP would win the UP polls, even if the Muslims did not vote for it.
Describing Vajpayee’s comments as “highly objectionable,” the Congress spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy said yesterday: “By making such a statement, the prime minister is indirectly pandering to the communal instincts of the majority Hindu community. This tactic cannot be permitted to be adopted by the leader of the largest democracy in the world.”
Criticizing Vajpayee’s statement as “dangerous” which “intended to divide the country,” the Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav faxed a letter to President Narayanan demanding Vajpayee’s dismissal. Yadav said: “By making such a statement publicly, he violated the model code of conduct.” Former Prime Minister V. P. Singh said in Lucknow that Vajpayee’s remark was in “bad taste” and “unbecoming” of the head of the government. Singh said: Vajpayee “appears to have forgotten that he is not just a political leader, but also the prime minister of the country.”
The right-winged Hindu-extremist party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad has been quick to exploit Vajpayee’s comments. Welcoming his “stand,” the VHP said yesterday that BJP and its allies were in power at the center without the support of Muslims. Speaking to reporters, the VHP general secretary Pravin Togadia warned of a “Hindu backlash” if VHP’s plans to build a temple at the site in Ayodhya where Babri Masjid once stood, were opposed. He said: “Ayodhya temple movement is a public expression against militant Islam.”
Claiming that ten lakh “Ram bhakts,” recruited from throughout the country, would reach Ayodhya by March 15, he said: “We shall not wait for even a day to start construction of the proposed temple in Ayodhya. The work will start on March 15, the date fixed by saints.”
“Secular” credentials of Vajpayee and the NDA government will be on test if and when VHP sticks to its “plans” for constructing the temple in Ayodhya. Ayodhya wave incited by the VHP is not likely to be ignored by BJP’s allies who supported it only after the Hindu party put the controversial issue on the back burner.
Analysts predict that failure of the BJP to return to power in UP may lead the way for a realignment of political forces at the center and compel Vajpayee to face midterm polls or make way for the opposition.
Signs are not lacking to show the opposition is ready to give the Vajpayee government a hard time in the coming days. Apart from their questioning Vajpayee’s stand on the Muslim vote, they have continued their protest against inclusion of Defense Minister George Fernandes in the Cabinet prior to completion of probe into Tehelka expose on fictitious defense deals. Signaling their protest, the opposition parties boycotted a meeting yesterday of the ministry’s parliamentary consultative committee presided by Fernandes. Only five NDA members attended the meeting. Of the 31 members in the committee, 20 belong to the opposition. Before the meeting, the Congress general secretary and chairman of its media department Ambika Soni said: “We are not going for the meeting. In the last Parliament session too we had boycotted it demanding resignation of Fernandes.”
