Muslim BJP Leader Speaks Out

[Guest guest]

It's fashionable to blame BJP for riots: Naqvi

 

Former minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Mukhtar

Abbas Naqvi is a Rajya Sabha MP, general secretary and spokesperson

of the BJP. He is one of the few Muslim leaders in the BJP, who has a

mass base winning from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh on a BJP ticket.

Though he lost the 1999 elections from Mau, he has risen steadily up

the BJP ranks and is today one of the prominent faces of the BJP in

the national capital. Naqvi spoke to E Jayakrishnan about the issues

in the ensuing elections in Gujarat and what it portends for the BJP.

 

Excerpts:

 

What, in your opinion, is the most important issue which the BJP is

taking to the elections in Gujarat?

 

BJP's primacy is on development and prosperity. However, as a very

politically conscious state the national and international events

will also impinge in the polls. The question of Pakistan-sponsored

terrorism in India and issues like international terrorism and the

related issues of Godhra will also naturally figure. However, the

accent will be on the five years of governance of the Gujarat

Government and the significant achievements of the Vajpayee

Government at the Centre whether it be IT, or impetus to roads and

achievements on the agricultural front will be highlighted.

 

But how does Godhra become part of international terrorism? Should it

not be seen more in the context of a law-and-order issue? As

primarily, isn't it the failure of the State Government to provide

security to its citizens, be they Hindu or Muslim?

 

No, it is not just a law and order issue. When the president of

Pakistan defines the incidents in Gujarat as Hindu terrorism and

employs the kind of language he used at the United nations, it is

very apparent that there is a direct involvement of Pakistan with

what happened in Gujarat.

 

Terrorism is not restricted to Gujarat alone, there are other parts

of India also. So, how can assigning responsibilities to Pakistan for

the events in Gujarat take away responsibility from the State

Government?

 

I agree that the State Government is responsible for the security of

its citizens. But when the incidents are used by the Congress party

to derive political mileage, we have to respond and we have to put

the events in the correct perspective. I am not trying to justify

what happened in Gujarat or the events after that but the fact is

that all political parties, including the Congress, have to

acknowledge that what happened in Godhra was an anti-national act.

Surely, that was not perpetrated by the State Government. The

Government of Gujarat has been severely pilloried but the fact is

that the State Government has been able to ensure that more than 80

percent of the State was kept incident free even in the worst days of

the riots, when the plan of the anti-nationals was to set fire to the

whole of Gujarat. These anti-nationals are the same people who

attacked the Akshardham temple and who recently attacked the

Raghunath temple in Kashmir. These people are out destabilise the

country by using every available opportunity to get the different

communities in India at each other's throat.

 

But at least the allegation is that the Government machinery in

Gujarat, if not a participant, at least looked the other way, when

the communal riots were on?

 

No State Government can wish a communal riot in its territory. There

are no 'if's and 'but's on this. Nobody can justify a communal riot.

The Gujarat Government also tried its utmost to control the riots.

That is why 80 percent of Gujarat was incident free. What is

unfortunate is that it has become a fashion to blame the BJP for

every communal riot. Where we have a Government it will be alleged

that it was the Government which instigated the riots. Where we are

in power, the easy way to allege that it is the BJP and the RSS, who

organised the riots. It is nothing but an attempt by the Opposition

to pass the buck. When the whole world is geared up to fight the

menace of international terrorism, the need of the hour is to ensure

that all political parties move beyond scoring points and stand

united against the designs of the forces out to destabilise and

engineer a communal divide in India. But what we see instead is that

the Congress president of Gujarat goes to the US and calls American

agencies to come to India and investigate the riots in Gujarat. It is

really shameful that a member of a responsible political party like

the Congress behaves in this manner. Congress president Sonia Gandhi

goes to the Islamic Centre in Gujarat and claims that Hindu militancy

is on the rise. I find its extremely shameful that on the one hand

Pervez Musharraf calls it 'Hindu terrorism' and on the other hand

Sonia Gandhi calls it Hindu 'militancy'. Is it not so unfortunate

that the president of Pakistan and the leader of the Opposition in

India should be talking in the same language? The difference of

opinions on the internal matters should be confined to the politics

within the country. Scoring points on foreign shores is neither

correct, nor in the national interest.

 

If the elections were to be fought on governance alone, even then it

can be argued that even if the riots were to be treated as a law-and–

order issue, the Narendra Modi Government has failed on that count.

Your comments.

 

No Government can account for a 100 percent record in law and order.

But we will be honest in admitting that there may have been some

failures in law and order as shown in the riots. But that cannot be

stretched to insinuate that the State Government instigated the

riots. Even if it is a Congress government, I will never accuse it of

instigating riots. Yes, there may be failures, but they are not

intentional. Because no government will wish for riots in its

streets. During the time of the BJP-Shiv Sena government in

Maharashtra, there was not a single communal riot. But in the rule of

the Congress Government, there have been a series of riots in

Bhiwandi, Sholapur, Thane, Kalyan and other places. After all, it is

the BJP which has lost the most in the recent riots. Because our

record of not a single communal riots in any of the states ruled by

the BJP has been tarnished.

 

But the allegation is that the BJP in Gujarat was facing certain

defeat and it is Godhra and the riots which are being used to shore

up your fortunes?

 

No, I just do not accept that. We will not climb on the body bags of

innocents to ever garner power. That is against the whole ethos of

the BJP. Moreover, more than 40 percent of the voters in India is

between the age group of 18 to 25 years, who will not be swayed by

communal passions. We have conducted some survey and we have found

that the young voter will not vote on communal considerations. No

political party can depend on communalism or casteism to survive in

Indian politics.

 

Does that mean that Godhra is not an issue for the Gujarat elections?

 

It is not an issue of primacy for us. But if the Congress continues

to harp on Godhra, naturally we will respond in kind. And, naturally

we will highlight all the aspects of the issues. We will not allow

Pakistan-sponsored terrorism to be characterised as 'sponsored by the

BJP' which the Congress is trying to do.

 

There is a perception that the second generation of leaders in the

BJP like Modi and Arun Jaitley have taken a strident line in Gujarat

and Prime Minister Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's

pleas have been ignored?

 

No, not all. Cultural nationalism and the secular those of the Indian

State are the guiding principles of the BJP. The problem is with the

perception. When a member of the Sangh Parivar echoes an aggressive

view, that is viewed as the stance of the BJP as well. The

demarcation gets diffused. That is not fair on the BJP.

 

But the fact is that when the Congress says something against you,

there is an immediate and strong reaction from you. But with the

Sangh organisations, your reaction is very muted and, therefore, the

perception is that it is orchestrated.

 

It is not necessary that we react to every word that every Sangh

organisation puts out. We are a political party and we will react

most vigorously to what the opposing political party puts out about

us.

 

There have been concerns that if the BJP comes to power in Gujarat by

using the `Gujarat model' - aggressive Hindutva – it will lend the

approach a legitimacy and tempt the party to use it in other states.

It is argued that this will lead to a very adverse communal situation

in the country. Your comments.

 

The BJP has never been a proponent of a Hindu state. We have never

wanted to make India a second version of Pakistan. Irrespective of

what happens in Gujarat, there is no shift towards any hardline

posture in the BJP. We have not given ourselves a hardline identity,

it is our opponents who have done that. The BJP has never stood for

any hardline and our primary goal today is to join the amity of

nations in the stampede for greater economic development. That is the

first and foremost task and that is also be our task in Gujarat.