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CHICAGO (Islam Online) - BJP president Bangaru Laxman's recent overture towards India's Muslims has attracted the ire of the Hindutva (right-wing Hindu) organizations. Laxman in his first ever speech as BJP President had said, "there is need for the party (BJP) to make sustained efforts to reach out to Muslims and weaken the influence on their minds of the sustained negative propaganda by adversaries." Bal Thackeray, leader of Shiv Sena, part of the Hindutva conglomerate, wrote in the daily Saamna, "what can be done if Hindutva propagating parties are adopting the policy of embracing Muslims. Congress for all these years had wooed the Muslims and now these pro-Hindutva political parties are following the same path." Hindu organizations have long been accusing the Congress Party, the now defunct Janta Dal, and other so-called secular organizations, of trying to appease Muslims at the expense of the Hindu majority. Critics say these parties have long used Muslims as vote banks, but completely ignored them after elections. The rank and file of the BJP leadership has ignored Laxman's appeal and has consistently declared that they will go ahead with temple construction at the site of the Babri Masjid, a key point of contention between right-wing Hindu nationalists and India's Muslims. Muslim leaders and intelligentsia said that they doubt the sincerity of the BJP President's call. Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam of the Institute of Objective Studies questioned, "How would one believe this party? Their honesty is restricted only to the effect that the call was done due to emergent political compulsions." In a strange twist of events, Hindutva forces have found support in usually unfriendly quarters. Senior Congressman and former AICC spokesman V.N Gadgil, known for his strong anti-Hindutva stand, attacked his own party for what he claimed as appeasement of Muslims. At a training camp for future Congress leaders, he said, "While appeasing Muslims, we should not forget Hindus who are a majority in this state." During his address, Gadgil also quoted from an article in The Economist, which had stated that "Islam And Democracy Do Not Go Together". Quoting from the article, Gadgil said a province in China, which had a substantial Muslim population, wanted to break away and form a separate nation. When asked for the reason for his provocative diatribe, he said, "I have said this earlier, Muslims constitute only 18[sic]% of the vote share. Even if all of them vote for the Congress, the party will not return to power. We cannot go on ignoring the sentiments of the other 82%." The Congress party has been the beneficiary of Muslim votes for the past half century, and it was because of their strategic vote that it came to power in several elections. |
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