BJP strikes at 'Islamisation of politics'

NEW DELHI: In unmistakable signals of the BJP playing its Hindutva card, senior party leader Kalyan Singh on Tuesday said "Islamisation of politics" would be the party's key plank in the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Buoyed by the party's success in the recent civic elections in the state, the BJP is now eyeing the number one slot in the Assembly polls in the state that once swept the saffron party to centrestage over the Ayodhya issue.

Elaborating on "Islamisation of politics", the Hindutva hardliner said that political parties were going in for "minority appeasement" through moves like reservation for Muslims and granting a minority status to the Aligarh Muslim University.

He also voiced suspicion that the delay in execution of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal could be because of the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh.

"This is nothing but Islamisation of politics," he said, adding that terrorism and threats to internal security were also plank on which the party would go to the people.

Rejecting possibilities of extending support to the BSP in forming the next government, he said his party had a bitter experience of sharing power in the state. And this time, he claimed, the BJP would be able to win a full majority.

"We have thrice carried the palanquin of Mayawati and now there is pain in our shoulders. It was a very painful experience. We do not want to repeat it," the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, who is leading the saffron campaign in the crucial polls, said.

Singh, who led the party to power in the state for the first time 15 years ago against the backdrop of the Ayodhya movement, called the Ram temple a symbol of faith, culture, tradition and nationalism.

He, however, said Ayodhya could not be an issue for the party to garner votes.

"We are committed to building a Ram temple in Ayodhya. But Ram is over and above partisan politics," he remarked, adding the party would give a befitting response to its detractors if challenged on the issue.

With the importance of Uttar Pradesh in the scheme of things in mind, Singh went the extra mile in the interview to project that all was well within his party and its ties with the Sangh Parivar.

"There are no ideological or programmatic differences. We are all united" was his refrain.

Singh summed up his party's electoral strategy in three words -- "badla (revenge), badlo (change), vikalp (alternative)" -- to regain the centrestage once again.

Elaborating on the three-word formula to woo voters, Singh sought to drive home the point that the people of the state have an opportunity to "avenge misrule" of Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh and of the Congress at the Centre.

"Falling from a frying pan into fire is a change. But it is not a change for better," he said, emphasising that a vote to Mayawati would sure lead to a change but "her rule will be as bad as the SP's."

"The only alternative available to the people is the BJP," he claimed, adding that the people have started talking "nostalgically" about the saffron rule in the state and of the Vajpayee government at the Centre.

Singh, who is the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh, also called UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's "clean chit" to outlawed Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), despite its suspected involvement in anti-national activities, part of "Islamisation of politics".

Terror strikes, including in Jammu and Kashmir and Ayodhya, and the government's handling of such situations shows that the powers that be do not want to antagonise Muslims, he alleged.

Demanding that the state assembly elections be held under the President's rule, he said a high-level delegation of the party would soon be meeting President A P J Abdul Kalam in this regard.

"This is necessary as there is mafia rule in Uttar Pradesh under which free and fair elections are not possible," the former Chief Minister said, alleging that there have been 16,000 murders, 7,000 rapes and 6,000 kidnappings during the three-year SP rule.

Dismissing the Congress' charges that the BJP and the SP were hand-in-glove, he said the cap fits the Congress not his party.

"It is the Congress that is supporting the Mulayam Singh government and it is the Samajwadi Party which is backing the Congress at the Centre. The BJP is nowhere involved," he said.

He also rejected suggestions that his party owed its success in the recent civic elections in Uttar Pradesh to the non-participation of the BSP in the contest.

"Whatever success we as also the Congress achieved was on our own strength and not because of any overt or covert support," Singh said.