IPRI :: Islamabad Policy Research Institute

Mr M M Joshi Indian Minister for Human Resource Development, has said that the elections in Gujarat State should be based on the development programmes. It is unfortunate that the politics of vote bank is being practised in India. Every politician is trying to catch the vote bank of the other. This policy needs to be changed and every political party should make efforts to ensure that elections are based on the programmes. Political, social and economic matters should remain the major issues of the polls. Narendra Modi and Mr Vajapyee have stated that the Godhra issue has no concern with the elections, but, nobody is going to ignore the existing environment of believing the ruling party. The need of the hour is that the elections should be held on the basis of real issues. It is, however, not possible because Indian society is based on caste, race and language and people would cast vote in that context.

The VHP has said in a statement that it wants to see the BJP in power in Gujarat at any cost. In India, the ruling BJP has released the first list of candidates for provincial elections in the Western State of Gujarat. The BJP announced its Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is accused of turning a blind eye to communal violence earlier this year, will contest the polls from a new constituency. He will stand from the State’s main city of Ahmedabad seen as a party strong-hold. One can say that the fate of Modi depends on the voters of Ahmedabad. Whether they have forgotten the role of Modi or still he is liked by the people of the State? Congresss has said that all the ruling elite are carrying out a ‘hate’ campaign in Gujarat. Vajpayee and Advani have said that the Godhra massacre should not be an election issue in Gujarat. But the Opposition rejected it by a voice vote. Mr Advani said that India could never be converted into a Hindu Rashtriya as its secularism is based on its cultural ethos and age-old civilisation and not the contribution of a particular political party.

But, no body is going to believe him who is not clear himself of their ideology. Not only the Indian people in general and the minorities in particular know that neither Narendra Modi nor Advani are sincere. The first one is keenly ambitious to retain his power in the State, while Mr Advani’s zeal is nothing except achieve prestigious premiership of India.

AHMEDABAD: As if their barbed rhetoric was not enough, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) workers are now hammering in reminders of the Godhra carnage by sporting T-shirts, caps, badges and scarves with images of leaping flames engulfing a train car.

“We will not let Gujarat fall prey to those who carried out the Godhra massacre” and “Every youth should become Shivaji (a legendary Hindu warrior) to fight anti-Hindu forces in Gujarat,” read slogans on the T-shirts.

Fifty-eight passengers, many of them VHP workers, had died in the February 27 burning of the Sabarmati Express wagon in Godhra town. The incident triggered three months of communal violence across the state that claimed at least 1,000 lives, mostly of Muslims. The VHP efforts to keep the Godhra issue alive are designed to lend the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a helping hand in the December 12 Gujarat assembly elections.

Though the BJP has not mentioned Godhra in its manifesto, its leaders have been referring to the train burning in their campaign speeches. When the sectarian violence broke out, some BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Narendra Modi, had said it was a spontaneous reaction to the killing of Hindus in Godhra.

The Election Commission has barred political parties from making Godhra a poll issue. It had earlier ordered the pulling down of BJP posters displaying the train burning and calling Modi the best chief minister in India.

“Since the BJP as a political party cannot display Godhra on its banners, the VHP is helping it,” said Cedric Prakash, director of Prashant, an NGO that works in the north Gujarat districts of Sabarkantha and Banaskantha.

While the VHP feels its campaign would help the BJP, some people feel playing Godhra up might backfire.

Said Vijay Patel, who sells ‘paan’, a betel leaf digestive: “Whatever happened in Godhra and thereafter everyone knows. Such a display of the Godhra incident is nothing but a disgusting reminder to both Hindus and Muslims of the illogical bloodbath the state witnessed. It goes to show that the BJP does not have any issue other than Godhra.”

Added political observer Prakash Shah: “The display of Godhra incident shows the bankruptcy of BJP ideology. It clearly indicates the party has forgotten all other issues, including the collapse of cooperative banks, the pathetic state of agriculture and high power tariffs.”

Cedric Prakash felt the VHP-BJP family was raking up Godhra as a last-ditch attempt to polarise voters on communal lines in the remote areas.

“I think urban voters are aware of the issues and not likely to respond to any attempt to raise a communal frenzy again. Maybe the VHP is trying to garner some votes for BJP in remote villages,” he said.

But senior Gandhian Narayan Desai disagreed. “Don't underestimate the political awareness of the rural folk. Besides, they are more concerned about their immediate issues like lack of drinking and irrigation water and electricity. They are not swayed by the Hindutva that VHP and BJP are trying to spread.”

Let us fight it out face-to-face. We have fought thrice, let there be a fourth war”, blurted India's deputy Prime Minister Advani while kicking off an election campaign in Gujarat. He further asserted that he would welcome the fighting between the two forces. Strange though it may seem to many that India would engage in war mongering at a time when the troops are being withdrawn from the border areas after an eleven months eyeball to eyeball confrontation on the borders but then this is the kind of India the BJP and the Hindu extremists are promoting. However, the chief minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot not only described it as a “poll gimmick” but also asserted that Advani was trying to divert people’s attention from the main issues of corruption and irregularities that were committed by the BJP in rehabilitation of quake victims in Kutch.

In most elections, foreign policy issues rarely play a major role. But it seems that the Indians -- more specifically the BJP's hawkish lot -- are employing foreign relations with a neighbour as one of the key issue. Ordinarily even the responsible Indian officials would refrain from giving such an outrageous statement particularly for electioneering purposes but to expect similar kind of rational behaviour from extremist Hindu nationalists is indeed somewhat unrealistic. The entire BJP policy can be succinctly described as consistently inconsistent. At times the BJP demonstrated interest in resolving Indo-Pak disputes and when they were close to the resolution, they decided to sabotage the peace process. Contradictory policy pursuits seem to have become the distinctive characteristics of the BJP government.

Unable to feed the Gujarat electorates with positive attainments of their rule as there has been none, the BJP decided to indulge in hate campaign against the Muslims in general and Pakistan in particular. Perhaps it was too much to expect that BJP might have had learned a lesson from its previous somewhat similar election campaign in UP (Uttar Pradesh) where the results were extremely disappointing for the BJP. One would have thought that the BJP had learned lessons from its campaign in UP but the employment of rhetoric and dwelling too heavily upon anti-Pakistanism reflect utter inabilities of the BJP ideologues to learn from the past mistakes.

Over the last 54 years the adversarial relationships between Pakistan and India have acquired institutional character. Various institutions including the media, the politicians, religious extremists, the armed forces and the educational systems have contributed relatively more in the hardening of attitudes. However it needs to be stressed here that the situation has become even worse when the extremist Hindu nationalists acquired power in India. With its expressed programme of making India a Hindu state, it has indulged in all kinds of despicable acts including systematic killing of its own Muslim citizens. Not only it successfully struck irreparable blows to India's over drummed edifice of secularism but also managed to transform the once known peaceful society of India into a most violent society of the world. At the time of partition the Gandhian approach of non-violence was well appreciated by many. But look at the current Indian situation. Not only those (RSS) who assassinated India's main leader Mr M K Gandhi form an important segment of the ruling BJP government but also the peaceful approaches to resolve issues and problems have all been discarded altogether.

Despite being fully cognizant of the communal carnage that took place in Gujarat earlier this year, the leadership of BJP seems to have decided to step up their anti-Pakistan rhetoric in Gujarat elections. It seems that most stalwarts of the BJP firmly believe that a tough and hardened stance against Pakistan would attract Hindu votes and enable the BJP's Narendra Modi to retain power in Gujarat. It is a common knowledge that Narendra Modi was blamed by the Indian inquiry commission as well as by many other organisations (outsiders as well insiders) for abetting the anti-Muslim riots in the state. Yet not only Advani threatened a fourth war in order to provide the necessary boost to his election campaign but even Vajpayee deemed fit in his wisdom to accuse Pakistan that it wanted to destabilize India's economy.

What seems intriguing is that in the officially drummed secular nature of Indian state, a hate campaign based on religious hatred is allowed to be part of electioneering campaign. May be the BJP has found a way to bypass the elections laws. While one can understand the spirit of democratic norms, nowhere it would facilitate the undesirable spread of religious hatred. All reports that are being published in Indian press clearly indicate the adverse trend evolving in the state of Gujarat. The promotion of hate campaign against a segment of their own society is bound to take heavy toll sooner or later.

Much more dangerously loaded are the speeches that are aimed to create war hysteria. It was with great efforts that good sense prevailed over the BJP decision makers who eventually realised the folly of troops concentration on the borders and announced the phased withdrawal of troops from the border areas. To employ battle cry at a time when the troops are withdrawing from the border does not make sense. It only reflects the poverty of BJP’s election campaign in Gujarat. To win a state election at the cost of regional stability cannot be viewed as a rational choice.

It is indeed regrettable that instead of responding positively to noble gesture of the new regime in Pakistan, India decided to not just ignore them but also threatened to impose a fourth war. The Pakistani foreign minister in his very first public statement asserted that the normalisation with India was among the top priorities of the new government. How have the Indians responded? The Indians responded by blaming Pakistan and threatening to start a war.

To issue threats of war in order to win a state election or to inject a hate injection merely reflects utter disregards for the nation as well as the region. Sometimes such statements are reflective of the accumulated frustrations and rebuffs. No responsible national leaders would indulge in such rhetoric. Even those who support such threats as product of special circumstances, they seem to be deluding themselves and avoiding facing the realities of the situation.

What would happen if the war breaks out in order to fulfill the aspirations of whimsical leaders? Not only the danger of nuclear exchanges would become real but also the entire region would be thrown into doldrums. Wars have their own momentum. Once started over a minor issue could quickly escalate and begin to tread dangerous grounds. Besides political issues can best be resolved through political means. Replacing political means with military options does not augur well for the future of the region.

The next war between India and Pakistan is likely to be extremely costly both in terms of men and material. While the rest of the world is exploring all avenues leading to peace and prosperity, the Indian leaders are engaged in pulling back all progress and plunge the area into unnecessary turmoil. Not only both India and Pakistan are nuclear weapon states but they also maintain large number of military forces. Compared to India’s active forces of 1,298,000, Pakistan maintains a force of 620,000. Both armed forces are well trained and experienced. Compared to Pakistan India has a much larger border to defend. Neither side would be able to attain their objective through military means.

The international community needs to take serious note of Advani's hate-campaign in order to secure a win for its party. If state machinery is employed to undertake systematic killings of the civilians, it is viewed as state terrorism. What happened in the state of Gujarat under the chief ministership of Narendra Modi is the most appropriate example of what can be appropriately called state terrorism.

NEW DELHI: Gujarat’s elections have produced one result even before the state goes to the polls on Thursday: new alliances in national politics.

With a slew of non-Congress politicians coming to the aid of the country's oldest party in battlefield Gujarat, the unpredictable is already happening with repercussions that will be felt nationwide.

Fifteen years after he deserted the Congress party, former Prime Minister VP Singh caused political turbulence by calling upon the voters of Gujarat to vote for his former party.

And two other once bitterly anti-Congress politicians, Ram Vilas Paswan and Laloo Prasad Yadav, have gone to the extent of campaigning for the Congress all over Gujarat, raising many eyebrows.

Although Yadav has been allied with the Congress for a while, he as well as VP Singh and Paswan have made it clear that their backing for the Congress has been necessitated by the terrible communal violence Gujarat witnessed this year, creating a Hindu-Muslim polarisation with worrying consequences for the nation.

Besides these three veterans, both the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) have teamed with the Congress to defeat the BJP in Gujarat.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which broke away from the Congress in 1999, has said it would be willing to give conditional backing to the latter in the event of a hung assembly.

Disregarding the danger of denting her traditional Muslim support base, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati - who not long ago ran down the BJP and its ideology - has spoken in favour of the party in Gujarat.

And although no other BJP ally has come to the aid of the beleaguered party in the state, none of them has openly attacked Modi or BJP-allied rightwing groups blamed for the widespread attacks on Muslims - although some of them, like TDP, have been critical of the Gujarat violence.

Political analysts feel the developments in Gujarat could be a forerunner of things to come, with more and more parties gravitating towards either the BJP or Congress, giving the country a possible two broad rival coalitions.

For decades since India's independence in 1947, the Congress remained the dominant political force while the opposition was fragmented. This changed in 1977 when the opposition ganged up to unseat the Congress in New Delhi for the first time.

As recently as 1997, when a Congress-backed centre-left coalition ruling India collapsed, some of the coalition members refused to prop up the Congress because of their long-time antipathy to the party.

“Anti-Congressism” became almost a creed with many regional and centre-left parties such as various constituents of the original Janata Dal. Many such groups still speak of a third front whenever there is a talk about providing an alternative to both the Congress and BJP.

This, it is now felt, could undergo some changes. The decision of some non-Congress politicians to come out openly in favour of the Congress, knowing only the latter can humble the well-knit BJP in Gujarat, is the first indication of this happening.

Said political analyst VB Singh: “It is a good gesture by non-BJP parties to campaign for the Congress because it is becoming more and more clear that there cannot be a single-party government in the centre in the next few years.”

“So the non-BJP parties have realised that they need a credible alliance to fight the BJP, and this fight has to be spearheaded by the Congress because the BJP and Congress are the two main parties of India”.

“Gujarat shows there are only going to be two fronts: one led by BJP and another by Congress in the long run. It is a good beginning.”

AHMEDABAD: As Gujarat picks a new Assembly on Thursday, the outcome in the following 20 constituencies will be keenly watched to determine which way the voters are swinging:

Maninagar: Two friends-turned-foes are contesting the mother of all battles in this eastern Ahmedabad constituency. Chief Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces a challenge from a former party colleague Yatin Oza, now with the Congress.

BJP’s Kamlesh Patel won in 1998 here by nearly 40,000 votes. The constituency has 300,700 voters, of which about 85 percent are Hindus. This area saw a lot of communal violence this year. Modi is expected to win easily but Oza is making him sweat.

Mandvi (Kutch): Industry Minister Suresh Mehta is seeking re-election from this constituency that was devastated by an earthquake last year. The senior most member of the Modi government and the earlier Keshubhai Patel government, Mehta routed his Congress rival by 14,524 votes in 1998. But complaints of inadequate earthquake relief work have changed the situation.

The Congress has fielded Chhabilbhai Patel. The constituency has a sizeable population of Muslims who may vote for Patel. But Mehta may scrape through if Patels, who number some 116,000, do not vote for the Congress.

Rapar (Kutch): The speaker of the dissolved assembly, Dhirubhai Shah, is seeking re-election. Apart from problems of quake rehabilitation, the merger of the Congress and Shankarsinh Vaghela’s Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) poses problems for him. He defeated the Congress by 7,814 votes in 1998. But it won't be easy to overcome Congress candidate Babu Meghji Shah, a Vaghela loyalist, because of the merger. About 136,000 voters of Rapar were badly affected by the 2001 quake and this could queer the pitch for BJP's Shah.

Rajkot-2: Vaju Vala of BJP is looking for another win. Chief Minister Modi made him quit the last assembly to contest from here. Modi won, though the margin of victory was reduced to 14,000 from Vala’s 28,000. Kashmira Nathwani of Congress asks voters why Modi ditched them and what Modi did for them during the 10 months he represented them. Vala has to answer the 155,000 voters these uncomfortable questions.

Jamnagar: The Congress has allotted this seat to Communist Party of India’s Bhikhu Vaghela. BJP dropped its last winner, Parmanand Khattar, and nominated Vasuben Trivedi. Khattar, who is contesting as an independent, won in 1998 by 7,715 votes. BJP is determined to retain the seat. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was asked to address a rally here to impress its 129,000 voters.

Visavadar: Former chief minister Keshubhai Patel represented Visavadar in the dissolved assembly until the party dumped him in Modi's favour. Despite requests by party leaders, Patel did not accept nomination for his son from this constituency of 118,000 voters. Strongman Patel, who won by 37,720 votes in 1998, would like to retain this seat for the party.

Amreli: Modi loyalist Parshottam Rupala is the BJP man in this constituency of 118,000 voters. He won last time by 8,081 votes, a margin Paresh Dhanani of Congress thinks he can turn on its head because of the anti-incumbency factor.

Bhavnagar(South): Congress strongman Shaktisinh Gohil is trying to wrest this seat from BJP’s Sunil Oza who last won by 9,585 votes. Gohil is popular enough in this constituency of 170,000 voters to win. Gohil did not contest in 1998.

Sabarmati: Congress biggie and former deputy chief minister Narhari Amin is trying to retain the seat. BJP's defeat in this constituency, which falls in Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's parliamentary constituency Gandhinagar, cost Keshubhai Patel the chief ministership.

Amin, a vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, faces tough competition from BJP’s Jitendra Patel, a surgeon by profession who has done considerable social work in this area for years.

Khadia: Health Minister Ashok Bhatt hopes to win for the seventh consecutive time. A BJP bastion, Khadia is the smallest constituency in Ahmedabad district with 85,000 voters. A Hindu wave and Bhatt’s popularity could see him through.

Naroda: The biggest massacre of the three-month sectarian violence took place here. About 90 people, mostly Muslims, were massacred. BJP’s Maya Kodnani, accused of taking part in the violence, won in 1998 by 75,000 votes. But she faces opposition within the party as the Patel community is ranged against her. Congress’ Kanu Kothia is trying to make the most of the discontent against her.

Vijapur: Opposition leader in the dissolved assembly, Naresh Raval, is again trying his luck here. He defeated BJP by 11,000 votes in 1998. But communal polarization could impact the outcome in this constituency of 155,000 voters.

Sidhpur: BJP has fielded Jaynarayan Vyas, who lost his ministerial job in October 2000 when he called then chief minister Keshubhai Patel a liar. Vyas won in 1998 by just 5,257 votes in a constituency of 138,000 voters. Balwantsinh Rajput of Congress, a Kshatriya, is banking on a Muslim-Kshatriya combination to trounce Vyas, a Brahmin.

Patan: Modi confidant and Education Minister Anandiben Patel is the BJP choice here. She is the only candidate apart from Modi who was allowed to shift the constituency though at least a dozen legislators and ministers reportedly sought new constituencies. Patel, who shifted from Mandal in Ahmedabad, faces an uphill task because even BJP workers see her as an outsider. Congress candidate Kanti Patel's main plank against Patel is that she is an outsider. In 1998 BJP won by 11,412 votes.

Sami: State Congress president Shankersinh Vaghela’s son Mahendrasinh Vaghela is contesting here for Congress. With a majority of Kshatriya voters, he is trying to wrest it from BJP’s Dilipsinh Thakore, who won in 1998 by 14,681 votes.

Khedbrahma (Scheduled Tribes): Former chief minister and state Congress president Amarsinh Chaudhary is trying to retain the seat. Chaudhary’s win is almost assured because he is popular among the tribesmen. He defeated BJP by 25,659 votes in 1998.

Godhra: Vishwa Hindu Parishad has pitted former state Bajrang Dal president Haresh Bhatt as the BJP nominee here. But despite the fact that this was where communal violence began, the Congress nominee, Rajendra Patel, is very strong. He won as an independent, defeating the Congress by 11,178 votes in 1998. The BJP had finished fourth. Nearly 30 percent of the 171,000 voters are Muslims.

Nadiad: One of the cleanest Congress politicians, Dinsha Patel, an MP, is the candidate. BJP's Pankaj Desai won by 14,000 votes in 1998. Patel’s clean image may help him wrest the seat. He is also considered a strong candidate for chief ministership if Congress wins.

Following Keshubhai Patel’s ouster from chief ministership, Patels are said to be angry with BJP. Congress is trying to take advantage of the situation. But BJP is all out to defeat Patel.

Borsad: Former central minister and three-time chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki's son Bharatsinh is trying his luck from what is considered a family fiefdom. He defeated BJP by 20,487 votes in 1998.

Vyara (ST): A Congress nomination to Tushar Chaudhary, son of Amarsinh Chaudhary, has evoked strong protests. The seat is reserved for tribesmen. Congress veteran Jhinabhai Darji, who framed the successful Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim (KHAM) combination, is backing rebel Congress candidate Pratap Gamit, who won by 16,070 votes for Congress in 1998.

I CANNOT get the faces of the women voters of the Millatnagar ward of the Maninagar constituency out of my mind. This was the constituency in which Gujarat’s strongman Narendra Modi was pitted against Congress’s Yatin Oza.

Millatnagar is the only Muslim pocket in a predominantly Hindu constituency. We went there because we wanted to see whether the Muslims were able to vote freely. Having read about the likely intimidation of the Muslim voters we wanted to witness the truth for ourselves.

Right away we were struck by the freedom with which Muslim women and men had turned out to vote. They were milling around in huge numbers. On their faces there was no trace of fear. But whether or not they could vote is another story. As soon as we reached we kept coming across people whose names were nowhere to be found on the voters’ lists. They showed us their voter ID- cards, they claimed that they had been voting for the last 25 years from the same constituencies, but where were their names? They argued and fought.

L.N. Ansari of Ahbab Nagar and his wife Hadithun Begum showed their photo ID’s but despite going from pillar to post could not find their names on any list. Aqleem Husain from Zainab Bi ki Chali was desperate to vote. He claimed his name had been struck off. One woman Rehana Banu said her feet hurt from being shunted from desk to desk. A young man was going around with his driver’s licence saying ‘I am alive’; his name was struck off as ‘deceased’.

We looked for someone who could help out. An official car was parked nearby where a man was drinking tea. He was the sector magistrate, one Mr Dave. What can be done for these people, we asked. Nothing, he said.

No matter if they have photo IDs; if their names are not on the list they can’t vote. Go to the deputy collector Mr Jhala, he advised, then rolled up the windows and continued drinking tea.

Meanwhile we heard that the Congress candidate Yatin Oza had arrived. This gentleman appeared most unperturbed. ‘What should be done to help these people exercise their constitutional right,’ we asked. ‘Nothing, behenji,’ he said. ‘If we get involved with them at this eleventh hour we will lose the ones whose names are on the list’.

We backed off from Yatin. But the crowds were so desperate that we decided to pursue it to the next logical step which had been suggested by all the polling booth officials. Take the matter to the Deputy Collector Jhala.

AHMEDABAD: The BJP may not openly admit it, but the Gujarat verdict reflects assertion of the leadership of Narendra Modi - his newly acquired image, overall campaign line and personal preferences.

Modi ditched Rajkot II to fight from Maninagar, where he won by a record margin of 69,000 votes, stoutly opposed renomination of his detractor Haren Pandya from Ellisbridge and spoke of Godhra defying the Election Commission and the Prime Minister.

Despite the apprehensions of losing Rajkot II, the BJP nominee and former Minister Vajubhai Vala worsted Congress nominee by over 5,000 votes and Pandya’s replacement Bhavin Seth won the seat by a resounding margin of 57,790 votes.

In an election that saw a fight between Modi and anti-Modi, the caretaker Chief Minister clearly reached out to the majority, the vote bank that would take him to victory, knowing that he had lost the support of the minority.

People were influenced by Shri
Modi’s rhetoric

Pawan Kumar Bansal : Hello friends I am here. In democracy the will of the people prevails and we accept the verdict with humility. But certainly, it was wholly unexpected because a government that had failed to live up to and discharge its primary responsibilities was not ever expected to win so many seats.

MikiPatel: Can someone please tell me about Shankersinh himself? Did he win or lose?

Pawan Kumar Bansal: He did not contest. His son who contested the polls could not win.

Sammy: Do you agree, sir, that you accepted votes on the dead bodies of Sikhs and now you are objecting to Mr Modi doing the same?

Pawan Kumar Bansal : Congress did not capitalise on the unfortunate and heinous anti-Sikh riots. In fact, it was the BJP who wound up its own election offices those days. The appeal of the Congress has always been on secular and democratic lines. That is why the government in Punjab led by Sardar Beant Singh attained popularity.

Surya: Where do you think the Congress went wrong here?
Pawan Kumar Bansal: Congress policies are clear and not dictated by short-term electoral gains. We have a bigger role to perform.

Pawan Kumar Bansal: No. The Congress party had a formidable task to perform in winning independence and then steering the country's ship during turbulent periods. All round development is a result of the governance provided and policies laid down by the Congress in a total democratic manner.

Raman: Mr Pawan, you need to understand that you also need to criticise when events like Godhra take place.

Pawan Kumar Bansal: The gory event at Godhra deserved and was condemned by the Congress. That is a matter of record. But the post Godhra events were also a big slur on the face of our nation and society. Congress makes no distinction between any form of communal violence where lives of innocent people are lost.

Raman: Do you think Congress has no leaders other than the wife of Rajiv Gandhi.

Pawan Kumar Bansal: Congress, the largest party in the country with the responsibility to run the affairs of 16 states, has appropriate and competent leadership at every level. Mrs Sonia Gandhi certainly is the president of the Indian National Congress and is leading the party admirably.

Pardhu: It’s high-time the Congress learnt a lesson not to treat minorities as vote banks. What do you say???

Pawan Kumar Bansal: The Congress has never treated minorities as vote bank but as much a part of the society as anyone else. On the contrary, it is the BJP that has tried to whip up communal passions amongst the majority community with the aim of getting larger number of votes.

Teomal: Was it a fight between Vaghela and Modi?
Pawan Kumar Bansal: It was not.

Velkur: According to you what were the primary responsibilities of the party in question?

Pawan Kumar Bansal: For BJP as the ruling party in Gujarat for the last 10 years it was its primary responsibility to raise the standard of living of the people by providing them basic necessities, which it miserably failed to do. It also failed to provide security to the people. Rather, its actions led to a communal divide, which is not auspicious for a pluralistic and a diverse nation as ours.

Trueindian: Who is your prime ministerial candidate for the coming general elections?

Pawan Kumar Bansal: This is not a relevant question at this juncture but certainly Mrs Sonia Gandhi as the leader of the Opposition is fully equipped to take on that mettle.

Sanjiv: Do you think that Congress has peaked on its performance and its downslide has started with Gujarat.

Pawan Kumar Bansal: No, there is no downslide for the Congress party. Gujarat is only an isolated case because of the sharp polarisation on communal lines as a result of Shri Modi’s diatribes and his projection of the election as a contest between him and Musharraf.

Krishnaprasad: Can you tell me why the Congress still believe in pseudo-secularism, appeasement of minorities, does not care for equal treatment of all Indians irrespective of their religion. When is Congress going to change its directions and policies???

Pawan Kumar Bansal: Congress is committed to secularism, not pseudo-secularism. On the contrary, it was Shri L K Advani’s speech in Lok Sabha the other day that smacked on pseudo-secularism. Congress does not stand for appeasement of anyone but for equal respect for all religions. Religion is not the basis of determining a person's position or place in society. Sarv Dharam Sambhav is our age-old philosophy which the Congress respects and stands by.

Ramvasanth: I agree with you about the secularist stand taken by the Congress right from the old ages. Due to this election results, will there be a change in the Congress stand on taking up secularism countrywide? Can you please give me an answer for this?

Pawan Kumar Bansal: Secularism for the Congress party is an article of faith. This will not change with a defeat in one election like the one in Gujarat. Just before these elections the people of Jammu had rejected the BJP lock, stock and barrel and only one candidate of theirs won with a slender margin of just 60 votes.

Surya: Do you agree with the ‘soft-Hindutva’ stand the Congress took? Did that affect the way they fought the battle?

Pawan Kumar Bansal: The Congress party did not take any such stand and its entire campaigning was based on good governance and betterment of the living standards of the people, besides revival of the shattered economy of the state.

Ramvasanth: What could be the most important factor in the Congress leaders' defeat in Gujarat? Was there anything wrong in the strategy?

Pawan Kumar Bansal: Well, the people have perhaps been influenced by Shri Modi's rhetoric, which will ultimately do no good to the society as a whole. The strategy of the congress was not aimed on just winning an election but in consonance with its policies and programmes aimed for the good of the nation as a whole.

Krishnaprasad: Mr Bansal, where is reply to my question? In the last four years as opposition party, what has the Congress suggested in terms of any policy statements towards the development of country instead of stalling Parliament for days and wasting crores of rupees of the taxpayer’s money??? What are your policies for economy, security, defence, agriculture?? Do you have any policy at all???

Pawan Kumar Bansal: During the last four years it was for the first time in the history of Parliament that on occasions members of the ruling party stalled the proceedings of the House in order to get the house adjourned early and avoid meaningful debates. There are elaborate policy documents prepared by the Congress party on different issues and the same have been articulated in and outside the Parliament.

Ramvasanth: Thank you Mr Pawan for your reply, hope the Congress will continue with its strategy and do good for the country.

Pawan Kumar Bansal: Thank you. Irrespective of the election results we would endeavour to realise our responsibilities and work for the welfare of the people.

Pawan Kumar Bansal: Thank you for chatting with me. My best wishes to all of you.

December 15, 2002,

Following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s thumping win in the Gujarat assembly election, caretaker Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday appealed for an end to divisive politics.

“The victory is not that of any political party, but of Gujarat's self-respect. It is linked to the prestige of five crore Gujaratis. It will be our effort to live up to their expectations and work for the welfare of the common man,” Modi told a press conference in Ahmedabad.

Asked if he had a message for Muslims, Modi, in an apparent reference to the Congress, said, “Whoever tried to spread venom has been defeated”. For God’s sake, stop dividing Gujarat.

“Those who have been defeated should know there is no full stop in politics. They should leave their negative role and play a constructive role. Let us together make Gujarat’s future.”

Modi also appealed to the BJP supporters to celebrate the party’s victory with “peace, restraint and brotherhood”.

“Kamal ne kamaal kar diya [the Lotus {BJP’s symbol} has worked wonders],” he said.

He claimed that for the first time in its history, the Congress had to adopt Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and abandon Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in its election campaign.

Asked about his priority, Modi said, “It will be decided once the government assumes charge.”

To a question whether the victory would change the party's direction at the national level, he said, “At the moment I am more concerned about government formation. I do not know about disha, [direction] but dasha [condition] will certainly change.”

Modi specially expressed gratitude to his predecessor Keshubhai Patel for his role in the victory.

Taking a dig at the media, which had been by and large critical of him in the wake of the communal violence, Modi said, “We are also grateful to the media for making the Gujarat election a subject of discussion worldwide through their respective interpretations. Otherwise, a small state like Gujarat would not have been noticed.”

Asked whether Sangh Parivar outfits like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had contributed to the party's victory, he said, “The credit goes to all the five crore people of Gujarat and it includes them.”

A number of prominent Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including several ministers and Congress heavyweights fell like nine pins in the Gujarat assembly election.

The election, which saw BJP reaffirming its hold in the state, witnessed the battle of the ballot turning into a Waterloo for as many as nine ministers, including former chief minister Suresh Mehta, Assembly Speaker Dhirubhai Shah and Agriculture Minister Purushottam Rupala.

Prominent among Congress leaders who lost, included former chief minister Dilip Parikh from Dhandhuka, former deputy chief minister Narhari Amin from Sabarmati, former CLP leader Naresh Rawal from Vijapur, Congress chief whip Siddharth Patel from Dabhoi and Mahendrasinh Vaghela, son of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee chief Shankersinh Vaghela from Sami in Patan district of north Gujarat.

Among the BJP ministers, who bit the dust included Prohibition Minister Fakir Vaghela from Dasada, Finance Minister Nitin Patel from Kadi, Minister of State for Cooperation Vadibhai Patel from Gandhinagar, Irrigation Minister Babu Bokhiria from Porbandar, Labour and Employment Minister Kanji Patel from Chikhli and Minister of State for Panchayats Ranchhod Desai.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who led the BJP campaign, was in the forefront of victorious candidates having bagged Maninagar with a massive 75,000-vote margin trouncing Yatin Oza of the Congress. Maya Kodnani, who was re-nominated by BJP from Naroda, worst-hit in post-Godhra communal violence, won by a thumping majority as also Amit Shah, a close associate of Modi, from Sarkhej.

10 women Candidates Successful in Gujarat Election

Ten women candidates out of the 36 fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress party have been successful at the polls for the Gujarat state legislative assembly.

While seven out of total 11 BJP candidates, including state Education Minister Anandiben Patel romped home, four Congress candidates also scraped through.

While Patel, a close associate of Chief Minister Narendra Modi scraped through in Patan, city BJP president Maya Kodnani won by a massive margin of over 40,000 votes from Naroda in Ahmedabad district, the worst-hit in post-Godhra communal violence.

Ramila Desai, a former Ahmedabad district panchayat president, Vasuben Trivedi, Jyotsana Somani and Bhikhi Parmar tasted their maiden victory from Kheralu, Jamnagar (city), Wankaner and Meghraj constituencies respectively.

BJP minister of state for women and child welfare Jasumati Korat retained her Jetpur seat in Saurashtra.

Congress candidate Bharti Patel ousted BJP Cabinet minister Kanji Patel from latter's home turf Chikhli in south Gujarat and so did Dr Neema Acharya, who wrested the seat from the BJP in Anjar in quake-hit Kutch district.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has got two-thirds majority in the Gujarat assembly, having already won 123 of the 176 seats declared at 1500 IST.

Riding a Hindutva wave in the wake of worst ever communal riots in the state following the Godhra carnage, caretaker Chief Minister Narendra Modi and a number of his Cabinet colleagues romped home with huge margins. Modi was elected from the Maninagar seat by a margin of over 75,000 votes.

Despite a spirited campaign, the Congress may just about retain its earlier tally. State Congress chief Shankarsinh Vaghela’s son, Mahendrasinh, was trailing in Sami constituency.

Godhra has gone to the ruling party with Bajrang Dal leader Haresh Bhatt winning the seat with a handsome margin.

Prominent among the BJP winners are Vajubhai Vala (Rajkot-II), Ashok Bhatt (Khadia) and Anandiben Patel (Patan).

Former Congress chief minister Amarsinh Chaudhary managed to retain his Khedbrahma seat even as his senior party colleague Narhari Amin lost from Sabarmati.

Significantly, the BJP’s gains were tempered by some setbacks in its traditional stronghold Saurashtra while it made appreciable gains in central Gujarat and Kutch where it was not expected to do well.

BJP's victory march has begun: PM

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in Gujarat is the beginning of the party’s march towards victory in the assembly elections next year and the Lok Sabha polls in 2004, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said at his residence in New Delhi on Sunday.

In his first reaction to the BJP's win, Vajpayee, flanked by his deputy Lal Kishenchand Advani and party president M Venkaiah Naidu, said partymen should begin preparations in various states where polls are due.

“This win has come along with victories in Rajasthan, where we have won all the three assembly by-elections, and in Godda [Jharkhand] where we have retained the Lok Sabha seat,” he said.

Hitting out at the Congress for attempting to play the communal card, Vajpayee said, “Communalism is a double-edged sword, which cuts both ways.”

He said while the BJP refrained from making Godhra an election issue, it was the Congress that had promised a white paper on it and the people rejected it.

Congratulating BJP workers for the win in Gujarat, Vajpayee said the people of the state had given an opportunity to the party to work towards development.

Vajpayee said the opposition thought that the people of Gujarat were displeased with the government and it was hopeful of a favourable outcome. “But they forgot that the BJP government functioned well… and found solutions to the people's problems.”

The people found that the Congress was not very concerned about the growing menace of terrorism, the prime minister said.

“Godhra carnage was also not condemned and this hurt the people of the state,” he said, adding, “we maintained our level of electioneering and succeeded in getting the support of the electorate.”

‘In the BJP victory, one finds the seeds of defeat’

Surya: Does this win for BJP give hardliners in the party a boost to use this line in the rest of the country?

Shri Achyut Yagnik: I strongly feel that BJP would try to replicate the Hindutva appeal in the 2003 elections in nine states as well as the 2004 national elections. The younger leadership within the BJP would follow aggressive militant Hindutva line.

Sammy: Do you think Mr Modi was actually responsible for the rioting, or was he a victim of the media?

Shri Achyut Yagnik: There are a number of indications suggesting the involvement of the BJP leadership in Gujarat. From 28 February to 2 March, the State had virtually collapsed. Even people were killed at the gate of the high court and a sitting judge also left his official residence.

Sakash: Hello Mr Yagnik, let me repeat my question to you: Don't you agree that ‘soft Hindutva’ was a failure. It failed during Rajiv’s shilanyas episode too. I've heard people saying the Congress doesn’t have faith in its own ideology! Isn't it time for aggressive secularism? You can't win an election if you choose to abandon courage and adopt the Opposition’s platform as your own!

Shri Achyut Yagnik: I don’t think soft Hindutva has failed. I feel the Congress was not proactive in Gujarat and they started the campaign very late and people’s issue like water, electricity, drought and earthquake relief were not raised by the Congress. Of course, I would agree that Hindutva appeal was very successful in central Gujarat and tribal belt also.

Sakash: Mr Yagnik, do you think this could be the beginning of real terrorism in our country?

Shri Achyut Yagnik: After Kashmir, Gujarat has also become a fertile ground for terrorists activities. Unless we start a healing touch, start peace and reconciliation process in Gujarat, society will be divided.

Shri Achyut Yagnik: I think the poll outcome suggests Hindutva appeal as well as the appeal of the pride of Gujarat or Gujarat asmita; not only tribals of eastern belt but the upper caste and intermediate caste of central Gujarat are also welcoming both Hindutva and Gujarati pride.

Subra: Why should the so-called secular governments bear the cost for this? Why should my tax money go for this pseudo-secularism? Correct or not? Do they give me any concession to go to Kedarnath?

Shri Achyut Yagnik: For your information, the government is facilitating yatra to Mount Kailash and Mansarovar for Hindus.

Sandeep: Mr Yagnik, what do u have to say about all the Muslims who were murdered during the Gujarat riots? Don’t u think that helped your party to win these elections?

Shri Achyut Yagnik: I do not belong to any party; I am a social worker associated with an organisation working for the empowerment of marginalised communities. My organisation has carried out relief and rehabilitation after earthquake and after the communal violence for Muslim victims.

Stinger: Mr Togadia had said if his experiment succeeds in Gujarat, it will be replicated in other parts of India. So what will be the BJP’s strategy in the nine states which go to the polls next year? Also, how much will the BJP yield to the VHP in Gujarat since the VHP had campaigned for it?

Shri Achyut Yagnik: The VHP had wanted 30% of the seats from the BJP, but I should point out that a number of important BJP leaders are very close to VHP and hence, I can say a process of VHP-isation of BJP is going on in Gujarat; and they will get more strength under Narendra Modi.

King: Do you seriously feel that BJP lost in UP because Ayodhya ‘lost its charm factor’ or because, the BJP refused to take a stand on the issue as it professed so strongly during pre-poll times. It's also irrefutable that a communal factor has aided the BJP once again in Gujarat. If that remains the case, a couple of blasts in Maharashtra next, before the elections occur, and subsequent recoil would also ensure their win. Please comment!

Shri Achyut Yagnik: After the NDA experiment at the Centre, it was not possible for the BJP to follow a militant line on Ayodhya. In UP also, they were dependent on the BSP and Mayawati. As long as the BJP is in NDA, it will not be possible for it to implement aggressive line either in UP or in other north Indian state.

In the BJP victory, one finds the seeds of defeat because after becoming a ruling party, they cannot have Hindutva line and they have to perform to resolve burning issues of the common people. Unfortunately, they failed to address the burning issues and in the end, they depended heavily on militant Hindutva. As BJP is facing the elections in 2003, in a number of states the younger leadership of BJP may adopt the strategy of aggressive Hindutva.

Shri Achyut Yagnik: Thank you for your questions. I have to now leave for another appointment. Let us hope for peace and tranquillity in Gujarat.

If there is one factor that can be singled out for the spectacular BJP victory in Gujarat, it’s the seething anger of Gujaratis over the way they were painted as villains before the world at large.

Clearly, while the people of Gujarat held a grudge against an influential section of the media, specially the high-profile electronic channels, their ire was, in electoral terms directed at the Congress which, in its eagerness to queer the pitch for the BJP, lent tacit support to human rights groups, both Indian and foreign, which damned Gujarat and its people in the most strident terms for the riots that followed the Godhra train carnage.

It’s not as though the communal incidents that took away innocent lives in hundreds were not worthy of strongest condemnation. But not only were the Congress and sections of the media blamed for not condemning the Godhra incident with equal vehemence, their campaign for Chief Minister Modi's ouster catapulted him as the protector of Gujarati honour and dignity in the eyes of the populace.

The vital aspect was that the BJP was able to read the pulse of the people. Specially after the Akshardham terrorist attack, its ideologues set about casting doubts over the ability of the Congress to deal firmly with terrorism if it came to power. This carried conviction with a people who saw the threat of imported terrorism with local support looming large over them.

The BJP strategy of playing upon the hurt pride of the Gujaratis also worked on the masses who looked upon the Congress with suspicion and upon the Election Commission as a collaborator in an unholy nexus. Congress president Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin and the stridency of her attacks on Modi only made matters worse for her party.

The Congress was just not able to get its act together. It lacked a well-thought-out strategy, deciding abruptly to come up with its own brand of Hindutva to counter the BJP. Most of its state leaders were busy campaigning in the constituencies of their sons or wives who had been put up in a characteristic show of myopia. The central leadership, on the other hand, was clueless, drafting into the campaign leaders like Laloo Yadav, who talked about governance and the very urbane Chhatisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi who laid stress on tribal empowerment.

In the BJP on the other hand, while Modi toured over 150 of the 182 constituencies, keeping up a scorching pace, L.K. Advani and Arun Jaitley lent solidity to the planning and articulation of the BJP line.

Now, with the results having revealed a massive mandate for the BJP, it is time the Congress accepts the verdict of the people with grace and equanimity. The statements of Vaghela and some central leaders, however, do not raise such a hope.

For the BJP Government, the task ahead is an onerous one. It must set about establishing durable peace in the state because emotive issues cannot be used for all times to sway the people. The Gujaratis are a pragmatic people. If there is one thing they hate, it is disruption in their business activity. The state's economic woes need to be addressed without delay. The disruption due to prolonged violence and the consequent loss of investor confidence, and the massive cost imposed by the earthquake have forced the state into near-bankruptcy.

It is for Modi to now not only impart a healing touch and restore confidence in the minorities who are justifiably feeling fearful and alienated, but also set about the task of reconstructing the state in right earnest.

Hindu Nationalists Win Landslide Vote in Indian State

New Delhi, Dec, 15 — In an election that was widely viewed as a referendum on India’s secular character, Hindu nationalists won a landslide re-election victory today in the Western state of Gujarat, which was convulsed by Hindu-Muslim riots early this year.

The vote seemed to affirm the success of the campaign strategy of the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party, which had focused on uniting Hindus against a threat of Islamic terrorism and implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, against the state’s Muslims.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which also leads the national coalition government, won 126 seats in the 182-seat state assembly. The Congress Party, the main opposition, won 51 seats.

The party’s greatest gains came in areas where rioting took place last spring, and where tensions were high. The riots—prompted by 59 Hindu pilgrims, being burned to death in February in a train compartment that had been surrounded by a Muslim mob — left 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslim.

The Bharatiya Janata Party won 52 of 65 seats in riot-affected areas. In central Gujarat, where the rioting was concentrated, it won 45 seats, 30 more than it had in 1998. Even candidates whom witnesses had described as leading or inciting rioting mobs won handily.

The polarization was so severe that in some localities. Muslims, who make up only 9 percent of the state population, and Hindus stood in separate lines on election day last Thursday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory defied the anti-incumbency that has defined almost every recent state election in India, as well as the caste-based political equations that had worked in favor of the Congress party in the past.

The results represent a major comeback of sorts for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has lost every major state election, including four in February, in the last two years. A loss in Gujarat could have severely weakened its national coalition.

Before the riots, the party had seemed vulnerable even in Gujarat. In 2000, it lost 25 out of 26 district elections in the state, and earlier this year, it lost two of three assembly by-elections.

But the decision to install Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist preacher turned political organizer, as the state’s chief minister last year, and the riots that came under his watch five months later, seemed to have raised the party’s fortunes.

Mr. Modi, who was accused of allowing the rioting to unfold unchecked, led a campaign that focused relentlessly on the immolation of the Hindu pilgrims. He and others used it to create a fear of terrorism in Gujarat, and to present the Bharatiya Janata Party as Hindu’s protectors.

Today, Mr. Modi said in Ahmedabad that the results represented the defeat of the “pseudo-secularists.” Those who were defeated, he said, “should not attempt to divide Gujarat, in whichever field they are, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah.”

But for some, the election results showed that the division of Gujarat had already occurred.

“The political marginalization of the five million Muslims of Gujarat is complete,” said J.S. Bandukwala, a professor of physics at the University of Baroda and a Muslim who narrowly escaped with his life during the riots last spring.

“Most Hindus of Gujarat have given electoral approval of state-sponsored dehumanisation of Muslims,” he said, adding that Muslims were now the “new untouchables.”

Despite fears that victory celebrations might spiral out of control, there were only sporadic incidents of violence today. A victory parade passing through a Muslim area in the city of Vadodara prompted an exchange of stone-throwing that the police dispersed with tear gas and gunfire. Six people were injured, and a curfew imposed.

The party’s national leadership credited the victory in Gujarat to local voters’ anger at the criticism of the state after the riots.

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani said at a news conference in New Delhi: “Ordinarily also we would have gotten a renewed mandate. But the renewed mandate coming in this manner has a lesson for the whole country.”

Jaipal Reddy, a spokesman for the Congress Party, said its poor showing was a result of “a purely negative sectarian campaign led by the B.J.P. and its affiliates for the last eight months.”

But the Congress Party, which historically has had a strong secular identity, had run what analysts called a “soft” Hindutva, or Hindu-ness, campaign of its own. Its state party president was a former legislator for the Bharatiya Janata Party, and it avoided campaigning among Muslims.

Mr. Reddy defended the Congress campaign, saying, “Secularism is not the same as negation of religion.”

But he added. “The communalisation of the campaign was so complete, nothing worked.”

The victors have their own challenges ahead as well. The election campaign laid bare the divisions in the Hindu nationalist family of organizations, of which the party is merely one element.

It pitted moderates, like Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, against hard-liners Mr. Modi, who has been strongly backed by the World Hindu Council, a fundamentalist socio cultural group that has become increasingly active politically.

Moderates in the party say privately that extremists, and the World Hindu Council in particular, were given a long leash during the campaign because they have a mass base in Gujarat that is unmatched in other states. After the election, an aide to the prime minister said, they would be reined in.

But that may not prove so easy. The council’s militantly nationalistic members campaigned hard for the party and will certainly take much of the “Gujarat is the graveyard of secular politics,” Pravin Togadia, the firebrand international general secretary of the World Hindu Council, declared today. “The graveyard will extend to Delhi.”

NEW DELHI DEC. 15. The Congress has blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party's “Hindutva'” campaign for its defeat in the elections to the Gujarat Assembly. The AICC general secretary in-charge of the State, Kamal Nath, said today that his party had been “done in” by the “intensity of the Hindutva wave.”

Neither the party leadership in the State nor those in-charge of the election campaign at the AICC had fathomed the depth of the “Hindutva” fervour or the post-Godhra religious polarisation. “They also spread the canard that there would be a Muslim backlash if the BJP won,” Mr. Nath told mediapersons. The AICC headquarters bore a deserted look and most of the leaders appeared stunned and surprised by the extent of the BJP’s victory.

Senior leaders cited cold statistics to drive home the point that the post-Godhra events had polarised the polity in Gujarat on communal lines. The Congress had lost 52 of the 65 seats in the riot-hit areas, and failed to win a single seat within a 100-mile radius of Godhra. The extent of polarisation, as also the manner in which it overcame all other considerations including caste, was borne out by the results from central Gujarat, the epicentre of the post-Godhra riots. The BJP won 42 of the 50 seats from the area.

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, chose not to react publicly. She asked the State leaders to furnish a report on the debacle. She is likely to confer with the Gujarat Congress chief, Shankarsinh Waghela, Amarsinh Choudhray and Mr. Nath tomorrow. Though Mr. Waghela has reportedly offered to resign, it is unlikely that Ms. Gandhi will accept his resignation.

AHMEDABAD: Two men died in India’s western Gujarat state on Sunday as supporters of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took to the streets to celebrate its election victory, police said on Monday.

A police official said that one man who worked for the opposition Congress party had been stabbed to death in the town of Baroda in central Gujarat, but added that police did not know whether this was due to settling of personal scores or political rivalry.

Police said on Sunday a BJP worker had been killed and four others injured in the town of Rajkot in western Gujarat when their victory procession was attacked by unidentified men.

Violence between rival party supporters is common in Indian elections, and the toll of two dead was relatively low by the standards of polls in some other states.

At least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in Gujarat in a spree of revenge killings after 59 Hindus were burned to death when their train was torched by a Muslim mob in the Gujarati town of Godhra on February 27.

Police clamp curfew: Police clamped a curfew on Monday on the town of Rajkot in India’s Gujarat state after a mob killed a BJP worker as the Hindu nationalist party celebrated its sweep to victory in state polls.

Police in Rajkot, 150 kilometres (94 miles) north of the state capital Gandhinagar, arrested 15 people for the attack on Sunday on the worker with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a police spokesman said. The worker was attacked when BJP members were celebrating their party’s resounding victory in the assembly poll.

“A curfew has been imposed in two areas of the town and around 15 people have been arrested as suspects in the attack,” the spokesman said. He said the situation was under control.

On Sunday Gujarat’s home secretary K. Nityanandan blamed Muslims for the attack. Police quickly intervened and prevented the situation from deteriorating.

Police, meanwhile, lifted the curfew that was imposed in the town of Baroda, 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Ahmedabad, on Sunday after sectarian violence broke out shortly after the BJP’s victory was announced.

“The situation in Baroda is controlled and we have lifted the curfew since 5:00 am today. The entire state of Gujarat largely is peaceful,” the spokesman said.

One person was hospitalised in the Baroda violence. Police fired tear gas to break up the clashes between BJP party workers and Muslims. Police also reported incidents of stone-throwing in some areas of Ahmedabad.

The BJP won a two-thirds majority in the elections, taking 126 seats in the 182-member assembly. Gujarat saw sectarian riots earlier this year that killed up to 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. —Reuters/AFP

NEW DELHI: Whatever its public postures, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is bound to embrace Hindutva, in the run-up to parliamentary elections barely two years away.

Political pundits are sure this will happen in the months to come, even if the party's spokespersons assert for now that it has no plans of giving up its overt secular approach governing its ties with the ruling multi-party coalition.

And this development could well be helped by some of its ideological allies, who seem to be less and less uncomfortable with the slow march of the BJP towards a strident Hindu rightwing posture.

This is best epitomized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a key political partner that makes no effort to hide its contempt for the country's traditional secular values and its desire to establish “Hindu supremacy” in a country where 82 per cent of its one billion population are Hindus.

Sunday's astounding verdict in Gujarat, where the BJP won a thumping victory in legislative assembly elections decimating the Congress party, seems set to change the future of Indian politics.

In Gujarat, Mahatma Gandhi's home state which the BJP and groups such as VHP have turned into a so-called Hindu laboratory since the 1980s, voted overwhelmingly for Chief Minister Narendra Modi although he was accused of presiding over - and indeed justifying -- one of India's worst communal orgies earlier this year.

As the Gujarat verdict became known, the BJP came under pressure from “Sangh Parviar” - groups affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's mentor and India's most influential Hindu group - to give up its middle-road approach and do a Narendra Modi all over the country.

Political analyst G.V.L. Narasimha Rao warned that this is precisely what the BJP would be tempted to do, since it has fetched dividend in Gujarat in contrast to a string of defeats in state elections in recent years.

“The BJP will gravitate more and more towards the ‘Parivar’ line because it has worked in Gujarat,” he told IANS. “If it doesn't, the VHP and ‘Parivar’ can teach the party a lesson. The BJP will definitely fall in line.” For good measure, VHP leader Pravin Togadia, who played a key role in BJP’s victory with a vicious campaign demeaning Muslims and secularism, vowed to make the whole of India a Hindu laboratory “to establish Hindu supremacy in India”.

“This is our promise and this is our resolve,” he thundered in Jaipur, in Gujarat's adjoining Rajasthan state as the results became known. "We were termed as lunatic fringe. Now secularists have become the impotent fringe.

“We will go to each corner to bring the country towards Hindu politics. Gujarat elections will change the ideology, colour and composition of all political parties.”

Privately BJP leaders admit that but for the killing of a large number of Hindu train passengers in Gujarat’s Godhra town on February 27 and the subsequent attacks on Muslims across the state, the party would have bitten the dust in the elections. Indeed, in the past two years, the BJP had lost all major municipal, village-level and by-elections in Gujarat.

But the communal carnage, blamed on RSS-linked groups such as VHP and Bajrang Dal, created an unprecedented communal divide in the state and helped to consolidate an overwhelming majority of Hindu votes behind BJP, leaving the Congress high and dry.

Prakash Karat, a leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), said the BJP was bound to take a sharp rightwing turn, with 10 states set to go to the polls in the coming year and parliamentary elections due in 2004 but which many observers say could be called earlier.

“BJP has already been tailoring its requirements of remaining in power with the needs of the Hindutva brigade,” he said.

“As far as parliamentary election is concerned, the BJP will fall back on Hindutva. The Gujarat results will ensure that. The hardliners’ view shall prevail.”

The BJP has close links with RSS, which was formed in 1925 and believes in Hindu supremacy. From 1986, when present Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani became the BJP president, the party began to take an increasingly “Hindu identity”, centred on an emotive campaign to build a Hindu temple at a mosque site in Ayodhya.

That campaign, where the BJP, VHP and other RSS-affiliated bodies worked in perfect tandem, helped the party to dramatically boost its strength in the Lok Sabha from a mere two seats to 89. The BJP became virtually unstoppable after that and finally took power in New Delhi at the head of a coalition in 1998.

But as BJP lost one state election after another from November 1998, party leaders became virtually convinced that it would find it difficult to meet the opposition challenge in elections dominated by issues related to governance.

Although BJP spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra denied the party had any such plans, another party leader, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, admitted: “Our line has worked in Gujarat. We have to take a line according to the circumstances.”

AHMEDABAD: The rising sons of Congress leaders in Gujarat set abruptly as they bit the dust at the hustings.

Sons seemed to be on the rise again in the Congress with the progeny of present and past leaders nominated in 14 constituencies across the state for Thursday’s elections. The party also fielded the wife of a senior legislator.

The biggest upset was the defeat of Gujarat Congress president Shankersinh Vaghela's son Mahendrasinh at Sami in the northern Gujarat district of Sabarkantha.

The consolation win was that of Tushar Chaudhary, son of former chief minister Amarsinh Chaudhary, who pulled off the victory in the predominantly tribal constituency of Vyara despite stiff resistance from a rebel Congress candidate.

The Congress had fielded Anil Patel, son of former state Congress president C.D. Patel, in Jalalpore constituency in south Gujarat. His father used to represent the constituency in the assembly. Anil lost to R.C. Patel of BJP.

The sons of three senior Congress leaders were members of the dissolved assembly. All three were renominated.

Bharat Solanki, son of former chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki, was fielded again from Borsad in central Gujarat. He was the only other rising son apart from Tushar Chaudhary.

Bharat Makwana, son of former federal minister Yogendra Makwana, failed to clinch Sojitra constituency while Siddharth Patel, son of former chief minister Chiman Patel, lost his Dabhoi constituency in Vadodara district.

Both of them were swept away by the Hindutva wave as their constituencies had witnessed unrest during the sectarian violence early in the year.

If that was not enough, former Gujarat Congress president Prabodh Raval’s son Chetan suffered a crushing defeat in Asarwa constituency of Ahmedabad. The father had represented Asarwa.

And while Vaghela loyalist Vitthal Radadia retained his Dhoraji seat in Saurashtra, his wife, who was fielded from Kalawad constituency in the same region, lost badly.

The Congress -- often accused of promoting dynastic politics for the Nehru-Gandhi family’s dominance -- had defended its decision to nominate the kin of top leaders saying it would be unfair to disqualify potential winners just because they are related to politicians.

State party spokesman Hasmukh Patel merely said: “Many of the leaders were defeated due to the Hindutva wave that swept the State.”

GANDHINAGAR: Narendra Modi was elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party here on Monday.

Modi’s name was proposed by senior minister Ashok Bhatt. Modi, who got a massive mandate in assembly elections on Saturday, is to be sworn in as Chief Minister on December 18 for which Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani are likely to be present along with other central leaders.

“The election of Modi as the leader of Legislature Party is mere formality since he had led the party in the assembly election where it got two-thirds majority,” Naidu said on Sunday night after a meeting of top party leaders with Vajpayee to review the poll outcome.

Naidu is accompanied by party General Secretary Sanjay Joshi and party in-charge of the state, Ramdas Aggarwal.

Modi’s name was seconded by six party MLAs at the meeting at which BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu was also present.

As Modi has already been projected as chief minister, his election as the legislative party leader was merely a formality.

The six MLAs who seconded Modi’s name for the legislature party leadership were Ramanlal Vora from Idar, Mangubhai Patel from Navsari, Jasumati Korat from Jethpur, Narottam Patel from Choriyasi, Sundersinh Chauhan from Mehamdavad and Bhupendrasinh Chudasama from Dholka Assembly consituencies respecively.

Following his appointment, Modi was garlanded by Naidu while former Gujarat Chief Minster Keshubhai Patel presented him with a traditional turban. BJP treasurer Ramdas Agarwal, who is in-charge of party affairs in Gujarat, conducted the procedure. —TOI

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s resounding victory in the Gujarat election has stunned Indian and international political pundits, not so much because the ruling party has improved its standing in the state but because it won a two-thirds majority vote simply by stoking communal hatred.

Analysts are raising questions about Narendra Modi's ominously-dubbed ‘Gujarat experiment’, fearing the BJP might create and ride a similar communal wave to victory in next year's elections in 10 other states.

Rights groups have condemned the way Mr Modi has ruled Gujarat ever since he came to power in October 2001, especially in the aftermath of the Godhra train incident in February last. The ensuing reprisal attacks against Muslims left 2,000 dead and tens of thousands homeless. Comprising nine per cent of Gujarat's 50 million-strong population, Muslims have never felt this insecure and marginalized in Gandhi’s home state since partition.

In line with his superhawkish approach, Modi chose to sail through the state election on what may seem a bizarre plank to the outside world: ‘vote for the BJP or surrender to Pakistan’. But this has been a consistent theme song of the extremist RSS, of which Mr Modi is a die-hard member.

The electorate swallowed the extremist nostrum hook, line and sinker in a state struggling with a prolonged drought and lack of power resources, and still reeling from the destruction caused by last year’s earthquake.

The BJP now has 126 of the total 182 seats in the Gujarat assembly, with the Congress getting only 51 - three seats less than the last time state election was held in 1998.

Indeed, Mr Modi, flanked by India’s hawkish deputy prime minister L.K. Advani and law minister Arun Jaitly - all from Gujarat - has shown the moderates like Mr Vajpayee within the ruling BJP what their party can achieve by fanning communal hatred and paranoia. Need one say that if the BJP were to get away with such a vile strategy, just to remain in power, it would finally spell the death of Indian secularism - Nehruvian and constitutional. Thus, the onus of saving secular politics from extinction is now on all those who oppose the RSS-BJP agenda of enforcing Hindutva.

A week is a long time in politics. Before long the incessant chatter, feverish excitement and endless speculation that characterised the Gujarat election will have died down, as other concerns raise their head. What are the lessons, then, that have emerged from the pollquake that recently hit the western state?

The most important, possibly, is this: that political polarisation along community lines may act as a multiplier in terms of votes under certain circumstances, but not only is this a dangerous strategy it could prove a governance divider in the long term. Ultimately, people cast their votes in the hope of achieving a political dispensation that would deliver to them better lives and better choices, and this can only be achieved in a situation of peace, stability and security. The more mature leaders within the BJP clearly recognise this when they categorically reject the notion that riots can deliver elections and deny that the party is interested in fomenting sectarian tensions in the run-up to next year’s string of assembly elections and the general election that follows in 2004.

They would, possibly, concede that such an approach would sow the seeds of future sectarian tension. Clearly, though, there are articulate and charismatic leaders within the larger Sangh Parivar that are of an entirely different persuasion straining at the leash. Keeping them in check would require tough handling. The choice before the BJP — victor of the Gujarat assembly elections — then is clear: will it remain committed to its responsibilities as a ruling party at the Centre, or will it allow its constituents to mine the nation’s future?

Ironically, the choice before the Congress — the loser of the Gujarat assembly election — is the very same. Will it, at long last, recognise what an abysmal failure its policy of soft Hindutva has been? That the lamb does not survive by donning the coat of the wolf? The fact that imitation is the worst form of flattery was proved conclusively in the thrashing the Congress got in Sunday’s verdict.

The party, in the process, failed to protect the idea of a united India. It is an idea that the Congress has long claimed for itself but has also long neglected. Let us hope then that the two most important political parties in the country get the message from Gujarat right, as they set forth to spar again and again in the campaign battlegrounds of the future. Let us hope that the election agendas they espouse in order to come to power will leave the country richer, not poorer. India deserves politicians who can deliver a higher Gross Domestic Product, not a Grossly Divided Polity.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Monday said the BJP’s victory in Gujarat Assembly elections and by-elections in Rajasthan have clearly shown that people don't want Congress but asked partymen not to be complacent.

“These elections have clearly shown that people don't want Congress and because of this BJP’s responsibility has increased,” he told the BJP Parliamentary Party at its weekly meeting here.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, party spokesman V K Malhotra said Vajpayee told partymen not to be overconfident and work towards party’s success in the coming assembly polls in ten states.

The Prime Minister said it was Congress which had raised Godhra issue during electioneering for Gujarat assembly polls.

Vajpayee said the victory in Gujarat was due to good work done by the BJP government in the state as also the negative propaganda of Congress, according to Malhotra.

Katzenjammer is a word not commonly used because of its German provenance, but it sums up rather well the mood at a time when the Gujarat pollquake has altered the political landscape and flattened many a cherished structure built with great deliberation over decades. ‘Katzenjammer’ means hangover, distress, depression. It also signifies confusion.

It’s not so much the Modi/BJP victory in Gujarat but the manner in which that victory was created that distresses. It’s is not so much the Congress defeat but the manner in which that defeat was fashioned that depresses.

NEW DELHI DEC. 17. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has warned of a "storm ahead which was not going to be limited to Gujarat'' and indicated clearly that its next target would be five States — Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi — where it is gearing up to spread the "Hindutva" ideology.

Praveen Togadia, VHP secretary-general, told the press here this evening what in his view constituted the important ingredients of Hindutva. “The Muslims here will enjoy the same place or status as Hindus enjoy in Pakistan, maybe even slightly better status,” he said. And as for Pakistan, the VHP was in favour of “dismembering” it, reminding everyone that “fundamentalism and extremism cannot be finished till Pakistan is dismembered.”

‘Hindutva opponents will get death sentence’. Muslims alone were not the target of his ire. All those who opposed Hindutva, and this certainly included secularists, would get the “death sentence” he declared. But the VHP would not have to carry out the sentence, the people would. “All Hindutva opponents will get the death sentence and we will leave it to the people to carry this out,” he said.

“Abhimanyu is not yet dead”, Mr. Togadia said. “The Mahabharat will be fought in Delhi”, he said perhaps talking about the Lok Sabha elections due in 2004.

He spelt out the Hindutva agenda — Ram temple at Ayodhya, anti-conversion law throughout the country, a common civil code, abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution which gives a special status to Jammu and Kashmir, deportation of all Bangladeshi intruders and a statute for cow protection. It was not a coincidence that all of this is part of the well-known and declared agenda of the RSS as well as the BJP. In fact, Mr. Togadia patted the BJP. “In Gujarat, the BJP has come back to its own agenda, the Gujarat election has shown the right direction to the BJP.”

Prior to 1989, the BJP itself was a “political untouchable,” but that was not the case now, the coalition National Democratic Alliance Government was proof of this. However, even after the NDA took birth the BJP’s Hindutva agenda remained “untouchable”.

Mr. Togadia and the VHP would set that right. It had already been set right in Gujarat where “our Hindutva agenda has become touchable (acceptable),” he argued.

Gujarat had, in fact, “finished the credibility of the secularists”. They had described the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, as ‘khalnayak’ (villain) but the people saw him as a hero. Those who had said that the VHP belonged to the `lunatic fringe' were wrong. “I have moved centre-stage, and they (secularists) have become the impotent fringe.”

He had addressed 60 meetings during the election campaign, and he need not remind Mr. Modi what the VHP expected of him. “He knows it well, he will not forget.”

Any hope that political Hinduism could be on its last legs was emphatically shattered on Sunday as Narendra Modi - a super- hawk in a party of extremists - swept to a landslide victory in India's Gujarat state. The result there is an indication of how badly values have become messed up in India, and a warning of worse to come.

Many commentators described the contest in Gujarat as one between Hinduism and secularism. Should India be an officially secular state, or should it adopt the creed of Hindutva and become an officially Hindu state? This description would have been apt for previous elections in which the BJP was pitted against non-communal parties like Congress. But it is not apt for the Gujarat elections: these were a contest between Hindutva and basic values of justice, tolerance and humanity - barbarism versus civilization.

The BJP that contested in Gujarat was far more extremist than the BJP that campaigned on the platform of Ayodhya or the Shah Bano case. Narendra Modi’s BJP sought re-election with its hands drenched in the blood of Muslims. The man who oversaw the biggest pogrom of Muslims in ten years (in a country notorious for killing its minorities) campaigned solely on the basis of that slaughter. And he won solely on the basis of that officially inspired massacre.

Modi could not have won on the basis of his record as Chief Minister. Judged by all the conventional criteria for governmental performance, that record was abysmal. GDP growth under his government fell to an all-time low of 1.1 per cent (it was once 8 per cent), industrial output slipped to eighth in the country (once third), power and water shortages increased, health and education provision deteriorated. All these are, of course, minor failings compared to Modi’s failure to perform the most basic function of government - maintain law and order.

February's fire on the Godhra train sparked an anti-Muslim pogrom that, by the most conservative estimates, claimed 2,000 Muslim lives. Thousands more were displaced from their homes, their properties and businesses were destroyed. The guiding and abetting hand of the state government in all this was all too apparent. Hindu mobs rampaged with official lists of Hindu and Muslim houses and businesses in their hands: they systematically destroyed everything Muslim and spared anything Hindu. The police were either bystanders or participants in acts of rape, murder and arson - never preventers.

Narendra Modi was very much a hands-on leader in the violence. This was not a case of the government failing to take preventive measures, or of the lower echelons of authority acting on their own initiative. The killing in Gujarat was encouraged and facilitated by the chief minister himself.

Thus, when Modi stood for re-election, there was absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind as to what he had or had not achieved as chief minister. He had failed to improve socio-economic conditions in the state - indeed worsened them - but he had overseen the biggest slaughter of Muslims in recent history. It is a telling indictment of the values of Gujarat’s Hindus that they voted for Modi because of the latter, and despite the former. For just as there was no doubt about what Modi stood for, there can be no doubt about what Gujaratis voted for: political and religious Hindu extremism.

Narendra Modi, the BJP and all those who voted for him are equally and utterly contemptible. But there is another culprit in Gujarat's desertion of humanity: the Congress. Many commentators characterized Gujarat’s election as a struggle between Hindutva and secularism. Just as they were wrong with regard to Hindutva (they should have said barbarism), so they were wrong in describing the Congress as the voice of secularism.

The Congress in Gujarat did not stand for secularism. Had it done so, it would not have fielded a former RSS leader as its candidate for chief minister. Had it done so, Sonia Gandhi would not have chosen the pilgrimage site of Ambaji to launch her campaign in the state. Had it done so, it would have made the BJP’s anti-Muslim pogroms the main plank of its offensive against the BJP: it would not have ignored these in favour of mundane (comparatively) issues like employment and water.

To be sure, the Congress in Gujarat was not the champion of secularism. As in other ignominious periods in its history, it was the champion of ‘soft’ Hindutva. It sought to win the Hindu vote by making the same appeals as the BJP. The Congress’ message in Gujarat was not as extremely communal as that of the BJP, but it did definitely use Hinduism to get votes. And as in previous elections, this strategy failed for a very simple reason: why would Hindus vote for a pale saffron impersonation when they could get the deep saffron real thing?

Secularism can never be defended through the back door of Hindutva; it can only succeed through a full-frontal assault on the extremist creed. Sonia Gandhi should have lambasted Narendra Modi for the massacres carried out by his ultra-Hindu cadres. She should have stood up for secularism as the only way a country as religiously heterogeneous as India can move forward - as the only guarantee of freedom and security for all its citizens.

Despite being of Italian origin, Sonia Gandhi failed to realize how vital secularism is to a multi-cultural India or the dangers inherent in pandering to Hindu sentiment. Gujarat - in the riots earlier this year and the election results now - is a vivid illustration of those dangers. Rabid Hindu fundamentalism is a threat to the lives and property of all minorities in India; to the economic growth and prosperity of all Indians (minorities especially, but Hindus too); to all the accepted norms of governance and rule of law. Saffronized India might be an infinitely worse place for Muslims, Christians and untouchables, but it would also be a significantly worse place for ordinary Hindus.

The BJP’s victory in Gujarat has brought the nightmare scenario of saffronized India several steps closer. Narendra Modi is already being tipped to replace Atal Behari Vajpayee (a liberal compared to the Gujarat CM) as prime minister. The party will definitely seek to replicate his Gujarat landslide in other forthcoming state elections by using the same tactics. Killing Muslims and burning their homes and businesses will be the new strategy to win votes - be poised for large-scale communal polarization and carnage.

Hindu fundamentalists today are out celebrating in the streets of Ahmedabad and other riot-ravaged parts of Gujarat. Their barbarism crushed the soft Hindutva of Congress. Justice, tolerance and humanity are nowhere to be seen: pity the Muslims of India.

‘Muslims won’t leave Gujarat but won’t live as second-class citizens’

The BJP victory in Gujarat is a sad day for not just Muslims but for the whole country. The party rode to power on the strength of Muslim blood and tears.

It is shocking that most Gujarati Hindus have agreed with the Modi-Togadia line of hatred for Muslims. The entire BJP campaign was based on rejecting Muslims as terrorists and Pakistanis.
Five million Gujarati Muslims have practically been marginalised. Ours is a poor community with a high rate of illiteracy. But adversity will make us stronger in the days to come. Muslims are not going to leave Gujarat. Nor will we live as second class-citizens on the charity of the Sangh Parivar.

Just as Hindus remember Somnath and Mohammed [Mahmud] of Ghazni, Muslims will always remember Gujarat and Modi. We will never forget this pogrom and we will never allow another pogrom.

Muslims will have to change their very way of life to adjust to the emerging crisis. No words are too strong to condemn the fatwa issued on the eve of the elections. Ulema have no business to dabble in politics. They must go back to their mosques and only preach the Koran and the Shariat.

Socio-economic transformation is a must if the community is to avoid becoming the new untouchables of India. Each and every Muslim boy and girl must get the best and highest education possible. Our future lies as a business community. The ideal example is that of the Jews in America.

We must know that this means women have to be treated with maximum respect and dignity. Triple talaq must be treated as un-Islamic. The whole foundation of Muslim society should rest on our women, who must model themselves on the lines of Hazrat Khadija and Hazrat Fatima.

While Muslims will always treat BJP as poison, we must be equally wary of all political parties that are aligned with it. For, by their silence, they made it possible for the Gujarat experiment to take place.

Our current worry is a communal polarisation being deliberately provoked in other states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The only remedy lies in eternal vigilance.

The Congress’s stance on secularism is quite weak. They appear embarrassed to mention the name of Gandhi and Nehru. Soft Hindutva is not the answer to hard Hindutva, but I must mention that Sonia Gandhi has her heart in the right place on the secular issue. A greater assertiveness by her will help the country.

I strongly disfavour the Mulayam Singh Yadav brand of secularism. It has become identified with the five-star culture of Amar Singh. This is making a mockery of a very grave national issue.

Islam teaches that Allah is Rab-ul-Aalmin, he is the creator of everyone and everything.

In that sense, all Hindus are our brothers and we must never hate them. Muslims will always be indebted to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, who sacrificed his life so that we could live in India as equal citizens with respect and dignity.

We appeal to all people of goodwill and conscience in India and abroad to recognise that the Sangh Parivar is no different from the Taliban of Afghanistan. Please stand with us in this fight between Good and Evil.

Professor J.K. Bandukwala teaches Nuclear Physics at M.S. University. During the Gujarat riots, he was saved from a mob by his Hindu neighbours. But the next day, a bigger mob torched his house and car. Bandukwala then fled to Mumbai, spent time abroad and returned to Vadodara after a few months.

It is a Babri masjid-like tragedy. The BJP’s decisive victory in Gujarat may not have demolished any structure of our composite culture. But it has shaken the foundations of the constitution, which enunciates India's commitment to secularism in its preamble. That the ruling BJP did it intentionally to win at the polls shows it in poor light because, as the head of the coalition government, it is incumbent on it to defend the basic structure on which the Union stands.

Is Gujarat a laboratory? Only the time will tell. But there is no mistaking that the Sangh parivar threw down the gauntlet in the name of Hindutva and won 126 seats in the 182-member assembly. Chief Minister Narendra Modi's plank was special: anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan and he made the two slogans synonymous. He furrowed the plough of hatred deep and reaped a rich harvest of bigotry. He did best in the area where he had planned and executed ethnic cleansing, a swing of 18 percent of vote in central Gujarat and 11 percent in the north. One explanation given is that secularism or Mahatma Gandhi has never appealed to the Gujaratis. This was particularly true in those parts of the state, where people had no qualm of conscience to vote en bloc for Modi even 10 months after their complicity in the riots.

Modi's warning not to support the Congress lest its win should be considered Pakistan's victory worked but only the other way round. His win has pleased Islamabad. It feels that the two-nation theory on which Pakistan was founded has been vindicated once again. In any case, since the days of the BJP-led government at Delhi, Pakistan has been saying that secularism in India is another name for the Hindu raj.

The Sangh parivar does not hide its ambition to establish a Hindu raj in India. Its anti-Muslim propaganda in Gujarat was open and blatant. But, apparently, New Delhi is embarrassed over the manner in which the international community has reacted initially to the BJP's victory. Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani has been quick in saying that it is not a victory for Hindutva. Mere words will carry no conviction because as many as 17 diplomats from different countries were themselves present to see the low level to which the parivar took the electioneering. In any case, why should the BJP feel shy because it is bound to duplicate the same formula in other states? One point it should, however, keep in mind: riding the wave of hate in a particular state is one thing but converting the entire country to Hindu chauvinism is another. What is sought to be done is against the ethos of our independence struggle in which people from different communities participated and sacrificed all. The Sangh parivar was never in the picture. But the saga of national movement is India's proud heritage. Independent India did not become a Hindu state because such a thought did not fit into the pluralism which the country had reflected for centuries.

After freedom, the Sangh parivar suddenly became active to raise the demand for a Hindu raj. But people followed Mahatma Gandhi, who even at the height of post-partition riots, said: Hindus and Muslims are my two eyes. In fact, his values, which were consecrated by his assassination at the hands of a fanatic Hindu, gave us respite for nearly 40 years from the Hindutva zealots. They came to be hated so much that they would not get even a two-digit figure in parliament. Mrs Indira Gandhi’s emergency gave them relevance because they were among the few to defy it under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narain. After the victory in Gujarat, the BJP may begin to nourish grandiose ideas. But I do not think that the party has any substantial strength beyond the middle class in northern India where fascination with Hindu identity has become more attractive than the Indian ethos. Still the battle to defeat the Hindutva forces will be tough and long. The Sangh parivar has permeated into every part of our activity and the elements believing in pluralistic and democratic values have taken secular ideas for granted.

Whether the Congress is the right party to lead the fight is not yet clear. It played soft Hindu line in Gujarat. Secularism is not a matter of politics. It is a commitment. Either you have it or you don't. There is no halfway house. Modi or Tagodia did not flinch for a second from tearing apart our secular fabric to combine religion with politics and the state. But the party whose president says how anybody can dare criticise Indira Gandhi has little room for ideas or introspection. In fact, if one were to look back one would find that the amendment to the constitution after the Shah Bano case for maintenance and the unlocking of the Babri masjid were the two main factors to build Hindu chauvinism. Advani’s rath yatra only consolidated it. The clean sweep of the BJP at three by-elections in Rajasthan indicates that the state may be the party's next target or Maharashtra with its tried and tested ally, the Shiv Sena. The Sangh parivar may also be thinking about early general elections. In may go wrong in its calculations. The BJP's win in Gujarat had very much to do with the ethnic cleansing. The police and authorities came in handy. This is not possible in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh or even Maharashtra where the Congress is in power. Bihar, with all the taint of crime and corruption, continues to be Laloo Prasad Yadav's preserve.

What the BJP leadership has to reckon with seriously is the emergence of Modi and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which was in charge of the polls in Gujarat. They will want to cash in on the “image” they have built of not stopping at anything for achieving their ends. The ageing party leadership may not be willing to go all the way yet. Muslims, however worried, feel differently. A Naroda resident, Peer Mohammad Allah Bakhsh, who received wounds during the riots, says boldly: This is our home, our country and we want to live here, work here and earn our livelihood here. Where will we go?” He represents the nation's resolve, not Modi’s pyrrhic victory.

As was widely expected, BJP has won an envious victory over secular forces, its sophistry of calling itself a 'really' secular party notwithstanding. The first conclusion to be drawn is that nationally BJP has received a shot in the arm. Earlier its serial defeats in so many states had made many Indian parties regard BJP's popularity and power to be in decline and thought its power will eventually end after a defeat in Gujarat. Well, it remains in the game, especially if it can regain the control of one or more major Hindi belt states next year.

Many Indians think that BJP does not stand on firm ideological grounds. Its publicists and gurus have certainly managed to create the strangest of religious fundamentalisms: the Hindu one. It is unnatural. Hinduism is a true natural religion, shaped by India's geography, history and flora and fauna; it is relaxed and decentralised and, up to a point, amorphous: you are at liberty to worship one supreme spirit or shower devotion on many gods, indeed as many as you fancy, or none at all. Only a few beliefs are common: transmigration of soul and the caste system as it developed in India. Fashioning a fundamentalism out of such material is a feat only the Sangh Parivar's versatility could have performed. All the same, this mental construct, Hindutva, cannot hold all the Hindus in thrall indefinitely. It is what many Hindus hold.

But no one can be surprised if the Sangh Parivar concludes that Hindutva conferred the ticket on BJP to survive especially in the Gujarat polls. It will be sorely tempted to apply the same Gujarat formula elsewhere. Some argue that Gujarat is not likely to be repeated in other states for the simple reason that BJP is not in power in other states. Without an entrenched Narendra Modi a Gujarat-like victory for Hindutva is not possible. While Gujarat’s lesson is clear and the attractiveness of Modi methodology is sure to seem natural to BJP strategists, its total inapplicability to other states is not proved. That formula can be applied partially or in stages elsewhere; the BJP advance elsewhere may be slow or even creeping but it should be possible, once Hindutva card's efficacy has been so convincingly demonstrated.

True, one state assembly election victory is no guarantee that BJP from now on will go on to win all the 10 or so states that go to poll in 2003 or win the Lok Sabha's election the year after. India is much too variegated and vast for easy generalisations. A lot will depend on other parties’ reaction to Gujarat and what conclusions they draw from this election. Congress, the main opponent of BJP, has claimed that BJP created a fear psychosis among Gujarat Hindu's — that Muslims and or Pakistan are coming — which is why the majority of voters supported BJP to fight these enemies. One wonders whether the Congress will wonder search for the reason why its campaign in Gujarat was unable to counter the fantastic notion of 11 per cent Muslim minority, beaten and cowed down already — and how — can be a threat to the huge majority community. Or Pakistan and its ISI can pose a cognisable threat to India. Their leaders are otherwise so dismissive as to call for teaching Pakistan a lesson and New Delhi is engaged in an arrogant coercive diplomacy, backed by a threat of war.

Foes of BJP will do well to adequately appreciate and analyse the psychological components of its appeal. They can scarcely hope to defeat and contain it unless they counter the proven appeal of BJP, assuming they think the Hindutva to be dangerous for India and not simply a partisan matter of somehow depriving BJP of an advantage. The stirring of Hindus' deepest feelings about their identity and interests by BJP has to be critically appreciated first. Although there are many parties in India that dislike BJP for a variety of reasons but mainly because they are rivals in pursuing power. But do they necessarily disapprove the philosophical underpinnings of Hindutva ideology? For, it is now an ideology. That is not certain, especially because opposing BJP and being formally secular can get them minorities' vote.

There are many others in India, mostly in the intelligentsia and smaller parties, mainly leftists, who philosophically disapprove of the whole Hindutva idea and find it inimical to India's best interests as a vast and varied land with uncountable ethnicities and religions. Imposition of one identity or belief on such a diverse mass of humanity will unleash contentions and conflicts on an unimaginable scale. Its rich diversity makes India a fascinating place. Preserving the variegated tapestry of its social living gives India a charm of its own. It is the imperative of humanistic values.

But in Indian politics BJP has thrown an ideological gauntlet into the ring. It is not an ordinary partisan challenge to its rivals. It is more radical. It wants to change India into a far more culturally illiberal country, dominated by a particular kind of Hindus. Other Hindus who dislike the philosophy and culture the Sangh Parivar promotes are unlikely to fare any better than minorities. The gauntlet has therefore to be picked up. The lines have already been drawn by BJP's mentors who have pre-empted the option of ignoring it as a foolish construct. They have to join the battle, if they do not wish to be decimated before long.

BJP ideas are a more serious threat to a plural India than an ordinary party's accession to power. They are still a rising tide, not as ebbing one. True, in some states BJP came, governed for a while and is a memory. But Gujarat is not just another state which has given it a second chance. The Dec 12 was the victory of a certain methodology, quite reminiscent of Nazi Fascism. Parivar hardliners will almost certainly try to implement it in part elsewhere insofar as they can stir up anti-Muslim hatred, cause riots and create so-called polarisation -- it is actually the ghettoing of Muslim minority -- in order to flourish politically, even if they do not win the next election. Without the advantage of having a Modi as the boss, organised pogroms may not be possible. But any progress the Parivar makes in the direction of polarisation -- why not call it simple communal hatred? -- it will be distorting and shrinking the rich diversities of India. Even in its initial stage of communal mobilisation, a cultural and intellectual impoverishment is achieved.

One visualises a reorganisation and realignment of political forces in India. There were people on the left and centre in India who disagree that Congress is a genuinely secular force after all the cynical compromises and gimmickry it has relied on during its 40 years rule over communal question. Some, in their desperation, are ready to take its claim of being secular at face value. Others think that 40 years of Congress rule suffices and the old dowager should now be left out of the desired united front of secular forces. Experience of a third force in India is not encouraging, though Mr VP Singh is still a memory that stirs emotion and quickens imagination. Can a new third force be created? Events will show.

This subject is of surpassing interest and concern to Pakistanis. Partly there are certain commonalties of religions and cultures between India and Pakistan. More than that there are innumerable other common strands. Indeed the commonalties between the two ‘distant neighbours’ are multifarious and trends interact. The contrived rise of Islamic extremism in Pakistan and its apogee in Taliban rule in Afghanistan and the Kashmir Jihad seems to have created an infantile envy in certain Hindu circles, creating the desire to take the route of religious extremism for achieving political goals. The 1980s Afghan and later Kashmir Jihad do seem to have encouraged BJP to do what Hindu Mahasabha and Jana Sangh never did. At any rate, the advances that religious right makes in Pakistan have a loud resonance on India’s right.

Pakistanis have just witnessed the spectacular rise of MMA. It is ruling two provinces. They realise who has materially helped the religious parties grow and who are the leaders of the MMA. Both had no love for democracy and were the allies of US in its wars on the Soviets, though the MMA fell out with the Americans over their second war on Taliban while Pakistan’s military regime quickly rejoined the US. Pakistani right's priorities are shown by its very first order: Ban the drinking of alcohol, no gambling (both stood already banned since 1977) and no music in buses. These looked the most pressing issues to the Maulanas of Pakistan requiring urgent action. There is no word from them about the leapfrogging poverty or inadequacy of education and healthcare for the masses. Religious right will tend to create similar problems in Pakistan to those the Sangh Parivar is doing in India.

Given some of these and other common problems concerning the masses' conditions, it will be a good idea for progressive Pakistanis to say and do whatever they can to strengthen secular, humanistic and truly democratic forces in India. Similarly helping Pakistan to build a plural and egalitarian society should be an interest of progressive minded Indians; giving Pakistanis a helping hand in this endeavour will help both countries overcome their perennial problems.

NEW DELHI .The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's remarks that Muslims had not strongly condemned the Godhra carnage came under severe attack from the Opposition which accused him of attempting to raise “divisive issues” and toeing the RSS-VHP line on the Gujarat violence.

“In spite of the fact that Godhra came in for strong condemnation cutting across party, religious and sectarian lines, no less a person than the Prime Minister is attempting to raise divisive issues,” the Congress spokesman, Abhishek Singhvi, told reporters.

Deprecating Mr. Vajpayee's statement, he said it was strange to ask for repentance by the entire community for the criminal acts of individuals. He also took exception to Mr. Vajpayee's ``stoic silence'' over the provocative remarks of the VHP leader, Praveen Togadia, and others.

Mr. Singhvi said that the newspapers published a day after the Godhra incident carried condemnatory statements issued by various organisations cutting across party and religious lines.

As the entire Hindu community could not be condemned for the brutal killing some years ago of the Australian Missionary, Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa, it would be unjust to condemn all Muslims for the Godhra incident, he said.

The CPI (M) politburo in a statement said that Mr. Vajpayee was “echoing the RSS-VHP line on the Gujarat violence.”

It said such a stance was equivalent to condemning the entire community for a crime committed by a few and would be seen as justification for the “mass killings” of the minorities in the State.

“Does the Prime Minister seriously believe that the condemnation alone (which actually did take place) would have restrained the VHP-Bajrang Dal mobs from resorting to the carnage that took place,” it asked.

The CPI said that Mr. Vajpayee's comments on the “attitude” of Muslims “exposed his image as a moderate.”

It’s secretary, D. Raja, said the Prime Minister's image as a moderate was only a “tactic to deceive” people.

He said that right from his comments calling for a national debate during the time of attacks on Christians in the Dangs in Gujarat and the killings of Muslims earlier this year and his claim in New York that he was a Swayamsevak only “confirmed the fact” that he belonged to the “communal and fascist” Sangh Parivar.

The Prime Minister’s comments only underlined the need for secular parties to come together to find ways to combat the “communalists and fascists,” he said.

The secretary of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, M. A. Rahim Qureshi, today described Mr. Vajpayee’s remarks as “unfortunate and condemnable.” He said Godhra was condemned by all Muslim organisations, including the AIMPLB. “The Prime Minister did not say a word condemning the bloodshed, gangrapes, devastation and destruction that followed Godhra.”— PTI, UNI

Some fear Hindu-nationalist win in Gujarat state elections threatens secular India

New Delhi, India – Hindu supremacists are trumpeting the landmark win of the governing party in western India as a mandate for “Hindutva.” But is it the end of secular politics in the world’s largest democracy?

Hindutva, or “Hindu-ness,” is a code word that implies the tenets of Hinduism should govern India, a secular nation since independence from Britain in 1947.

“India will become a Hindu state within two years from now, and the Gujarat election results are just an indication,” said Pravin Togadia, a senior leader of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council, a close partner of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP took 126 seats and now controls two-thirds of the 182-seat assembly in the western state of Gujarat, where more than 1,000 people have died this year in the country’s worst Hindu-Muslim rioting in a decade.

“India is a country for the Hindus and not made for the Muslims. They have Pakistan, where they can live if they want,” Togadia said after the BJP victory Sunday.

This anti-Muslim rhetoric, while toned down in the big cities during the campaign, became the rallying cry of the BJP. Some local BJP leaders told huge gatherings in rural areas that Muslims were traitors to India and should be forced to leave.

The BJP, led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, heads India’s ruling 19-party coalition. It has held power since 1998 and faces national elections by 2004. The Gujarat victory ends its losing streak in four state elections this year. With polls in 10 states due next year, some strident BJP members believe the Hindutva strategy worked in Gujarat, so why not the rest of India?

The win returns Chief Minister Narendra Modi to lead the state government and makes him a potential candidate for prime minister. While campaigning, Modi repeatedly refered to a train fire set by a Muslim mob in February, killing 60 Hindus and igniting revenge attacks by Hindu. Most of the 1,000 people killed in Guajrat have been Muslims, many of them women and children burned alive.

Gujarat was the home state of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the father of India’s freedom movement who preached religious tolerance and democracy.

He once wrote: “Hindu-Muslim cooperation is our inevitable condition for Indian freedom,” and was devastated when independence was born in the blood of 1 million killed when the subcontinent was partitioned into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan in 1947.

Some believe that Sunday’s victory spells doom for Gandhi’s vision of a harmonious India, where today 130 million Muslims generally live peacefully among India’s 1 billion people.

“I think the monster is out in the open, and it’s going to be a tough job for the democratic and secular forces,” said Mushirul Hasan, a professor of modern Indian history. “The issue is the very survival of secular democracy in this country. I think it’s under great threat.”

Hasan said the Gujarat electorate has given the BJP a mandate to go forward with the Hindutva agenda.

“Now it’s really a question of whether it’s the VHP with its stridency and militancy that is going to wrest the initiative from the BJP,” Hasan said. “or is it the BJP that will eventually succeed in containing its more militant members?”

Others, however, said the BJP would be wise to steer away from playing the Hindutva card.

“Such a strategy will not provide any electoral success. Instead, it will violate Hinduism’s sacred tradition of tolerance and end up destroying the stability of the world’s largest democracy,” read an editorial in Monday’s Hindustan Times. “The BJP has won. But India should not lose.”

Neighboring Pakistan, India’s longtime rival, watched the elections closely, though there has been no official comment from Islamabad.

Some analysts warned Monday that growing Hindu extremism could make peace between the nuclear neighbors even more elusive.

“Extremism is gaining more and more strength in India and getting deeply entrenched in Indian politics,” said Talat Massoud, a political analyst and retired Pakistani army general. “It will breed extremism in the whole of South Asia.”

Pakistan and India have fought two wars over the disputed land of Kashmir (new- web sites), India’s only Muslim-majority state, and came close to a fourth war this year.

“This election may, unfortunately, set the tone for elections in other parts of India,” Najumuddin Sheikh, a former top official in Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, told The Associated Press in Islamabad. “The prospects for India-Pakistan relations are bound to be bleak.”

VADODARA: Election has come and gone, but the residents of the walled city areas of Vadodara haven’t slept a single night peacefully after the poll results with incidents of stone-pelting continuing for the fifth night on Thursday.

Trouble started with the victory procession taken out by BJP candidate from Raopura Yogesh Patel that, residents allege, only fanned the underlying communal tension that was at its peak for months since February 27. While the day passes off peacefully, miscreants take to the streets in the night.

The night curfew imposed in Machhipith from where violence started has been lifted but tension has spread to other areas where groups come out and indulge in stone-pelting or arson only after 9.30 p.m.

Three shops belonging to Muslims were torched and the Kadia mosque on Raopura Road was damaged in broad daylight on December 15 when Patel’s victory procession passed by Machhipith. While BJP claims the procession came under stone-pelting, the locals allege they themselves were the target. A police inspector was among those injured in stone-pelting.

Two Hindu shops were torched on the same night after curfew had been imposed in the night. A few Muslim houses were targeted in Dabhi mohalla the same night which led to a pitched battle between the two communities. Two cabins belonging to Hindus were also set ablaze.

Local MLA Bhupendra Lakhawala’s visit on the morning of December 16 to Dabhi mohalla did not help. In fact, rival mobs indulged in stone-pelting in the MLA’s presence and he had to be escorted out to safety by police. Violence again erupted in the night, this time a mosque in Chhipwad was targeted. A temple was attacked in retaliation.

On the night of December 17, group clashes took place in Fatehpura and Hathikhana areas. Police fired at a Hindu mob and injured two persons who alleged the police were drunk. The cops were subjected to breath-analyser tests that proved negative but were transferred out of Fatehpura police outpost. The police could do little as sporadic violence continued in different parts. A hut belonging to a Hindu was burnt down completely while a Muslim youth was injured in police firing.

On December 18, violence shifted to Rayen Basera mohalla where two Muslim houses were torched. No one was arrested, and on Thursday, around 9.30 p.m., a couple of shops belonging to Muslims were torched in Mangal Bazar, city’s main market centre.

‘‘Nights have become a nightmare for the last four days,” said Gopal Rana of Nagarwada, an area close to Nawabwada. ‘‘Tension grips the walled city as soon as darkness falls forcing the shopkeepers to down shutters early. Customers also rush home early,” said Yunus Patel, a shopkeeper of Jubileebaug.

NEW DELHI: The Congress, shell-shocked by the Gujarat results, is in a fix over how it should counter what Sonia Gandhi described on Thursday as the BJP’s “venomous” campaign to spread hatred and the communal virus.

With the Congress president ending her silence on her party's rout at the CPP meet on Thursday, Himachal Pradesh - where polls are due in February 2003 along with Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura_- has suddenly acquired key importance.

While Gujarat arrested the BJP’s downslide and the Congress’s upward movement, Himachal will determine whether this was an aberration or an ongoing phenomenon.

The BJP hopes that terrorist strikes in Doda and Jammu -- they have been taking place with a regularity -- will impact Himachal Pradesh in the new climate created by Gujarat, even though the hill state has a minuscule Muslim population.

The Congress, on the other hand, has started to pore over the caste breakdown and the possibility of forging new equations in the state which has a 38% Rajput population.

Its CLP leader Vir Bhadra Singh is a Rajput but given that Chief Minister P K Dhumal is a Dalit, the party has to make a dent into the 25 per cent SC vote.

Although Sonia has appointed a committee headed by Manmohan Singh to plan the strategy for the coming nine Assembly elections -- the committee had its first meeting on Thursday evening -- the fact is the party isn’t clear what line it should take.

“We have first to decide how we counter this campaign based on hatred, fear and revenge, and the lines of the campaign we are going to run. Only then will we be able to put into place forces which will carry it out,” said Ambika Soni, Political Secretary to the Congress President.

“Do we match their campaign, in which case what will happen to the country?” asked CWC member Ghulam Nabi Azad. The Gujarat results, however, had “consolidated the Congress further,” he said.

Another member of the CWC, Ahmed Patel, expressed confidence that Gujarat would not be repeated elsewhere. Referring to his party’s defeat in Rajasthan by-elections, Patel said, “If bypolls were to decide which way a state will swing, then the Congress, which won all the by-elections in Gujarat, including all the local elections, should have captured the State.”

Meanwhile, the BJP managers are already devising their strategy. For instance, they plan to project Dilip Singh Judeo, a Hindutva flag bearer who has been in the forefront of the campaign for reconverting Hindus converted to Christianity, as its future Chief Minister in Chhattisgarh and he has already been given his brief.

Though the incumbency factor is enough to help the BJP wrest Rajasthan from the Congress, as things stand, the BJP hopes the spill over effect from Gujarat will reinforce its efforts in places like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Tonk and the areas of Rajasthan bordering Pakistan.

As it is, Vasundhra Raje Scindia appears to have clicked as the BJP chief in the state after some teething problems. She is married into a Jat family.

Though Jats were really not a major factor in the three bypolls where the Congress lost, the disenchantment of the Jats with the Congress is worrying the party. Hoping for chief ministership since 1973, the Jats are no longer prepared to accept crumbs thrown at them.

There is also a move, as yet a fledgling one, to launch a third front in Rajasthan, which would hurt the Congress. The idea is essentially to win over the Jats, and this may be spearheaded by Ajit Singh. He may make common cause with people like Hari Singh, who was Secretary of the Jat Mahasabha and was at one time with the NCP.

The demand for the removal of Gehlot, which has started to be voiced, has also to be viewed against the backdrop of whether a Jat should be made the CM in Rajasthan, but changing the horse midstream has its own problems.

Though Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijay Singh has promised to avenge the defeat of his party in Gujarat, he too has to worry. The BJP may now unleash Uma Bharati as the party chief in Madhya Pradesh and the Hindutva wave could affect parts of his State.

The shift of the tribals in the Gujarat-bordering constituency of Sagwara in Rajasthan, where the Congress lost in the bypoll, could also have its impact on the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh.

December 20, 2002, Indian Press,
http://www.newindpress.com/election/gujarat2002/News.asp?

GANDHINAGAR: Factions in the Gujarat Congress, which grudgingly joined hands for the Assembly elections are back at each other's throats.

It took Sonia Gandhi’s intervention finally to see that Amarsinh Chaudhary was elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) at its meeting on Thursday.

What should have been a half-hour affair dragged to three hours, with each MLA summoned to express his views.

It all began with Bharat Solanki, son of former chief minister and a faction head Madhavsinh Solanki, proposing Chaudhary's name as CLP leader. At once, Danta MLA Mukesh Gadhvi butted in. He proposed that a “younger person” be elected to the post, and that All-India Congress Committee observer Shailaja Kumari elicit everyone’s views before anyone was elected.

The catch here is that Gadhvi belongs to the Solanki faction. The suggestion was apparently aimed at getting Bharat the post. By having Bharat himself propose Chaudhary’s name, the Solanki faction apparently wanted others of its group to speak up and oppose the election of an old-timer.

This created a flutter, and Shailaja directed the meeting to adopt a one-line resolution authorising Congress president Sonia to take the final decision on the leadership issue.

After that, Shailaja initiated the process of eliciting the views of MLAs by calling them individually. This went on for about three hours.

Later, Shailaja called up AICC general secretary and Gujarat in-charge Kamal Nath in Delhi and apprised him of the proceedings. Nath conveyed this to Sonia, who finally gave a nod in favour of Chaudhary.

“The high-command has conveyed that Chaudhary be elected the CLP leader, and all the party MLAs have accepted the decision unanimously,” Shailaja told reporters later.

However, Bharat may get one thing out of the drama. According to a senior Congress leader, he is certain to be made the CLP deputy leader.

“There are over 30 youngsters among the total 51 party legislators who have been elected from across the State. With Chaudhary having proven to be a weak opposition leader during his earlier stint, the party high command should have preferred a younger member to head the CLP,” he contended.

He said many in the CLP felt that “the old guard should give way to younger elements to take on a BJP led by the young Narendra Modi”. With Lok Sabha elections due in 2004, unless the Congress leadership perks up its cadre with youngsters, it will be difficult for it to take on the BJP, he added.

After being elected CLP leader, Chaudhary told reporters that his priority would be to expose the “fascist face” of the BJP. Asked about the Congress debacle in its traditional tribal bastion, Chaudhary, who’s himself a tribal leader, said: “The Congress has won as many as 12 of the total 26 tribal seats.”

December 20, 2002, Indian Press,
http://www.newindpress.com/election/gujarat2002/News.asp

AHMEDABAD: The stage is set for the swearing-in ceremony of Gujarat Chief Minister designate Narendra Modi on Sunday along with his “token cabinet” in the presence of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and other dignitaries.

About a lakh people will witness Modi being sworn-in along with a team of hand-picked cabinet colleagues. Party sources said nine ministers might be sworn in as part of the token cabinet.

For the first time, the swearing-in ceremony has been shifted from the State capital Gandhinagar to the Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad, where a 15 ft high dais with a lift for Vajpayee has been set up.

Commandos of the Special Protection Group (SPG), 1500 police personnel and paramilitary forces have been placed in a three-tier formation to ensure tight security.

Meanwhile, the Congress has decided not to participate in the mega function as “the State Government has allegedly violated all the required norms for conducting the ceremony”, Amarsinh Chaudhary, leader of the opposition in Legislative Assembly, told PTI here on Saturday.

Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu, chief ministers of about half a dozen states including Jayalalithaa (Tamil Nadu), Om Prakash Chautala (Haryana), Mayawati (Uttar Pradesh), Mohan Parrikar (Goa) and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farookh Abdullah are likely to grace the occasion, according to state BJP president Rajendrasinh Rana.

The BJP, which won the polls with a massive mandate, has also decided to invite film and TV stars. Hema Malini, Juhi Chawla, Shekhar Suman and Union Minister of State for Tourism Vinod Khanna would be attending the ceremony, which is open to the public.

Those who are likely to be inducted in the “token ministry” include former ministers Ashok Bhatt, Narottam Patel, Bharat Barot, Anandi Patel, Gordhan Jhadafiya and new faces like chairman of Narmada Nigam Bhupendrasinh Chudasma and Amit Shah, who won with the biggest margin over 1.5 lakh votes.

December 21, 2002, Indian Press,
http://www.newindpress.com/election/gujarat2002/News.asp?

The nationalist’s dark victory

The closer you look, the worse it seems. It is bad enough that a hate-filled campaign playing on communal fears propelled Hindu nationalists to a landslide election victory in the western state of Gujarat, despite a bloody pogrom against the Muslim minority earlier this year. More distressing still is the compelling evidence that the violence was actually a vote-winer for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its chief minister in Gujarat, Narendra Modi. The implications are worrying both for the tenor of India’s domestic politics, and for its relations with the outside world, especially its neighbour and fellow nuclear power, Pakistan.

The results, announced on December 15^th, showed that the BJP, which leads the national coalition government, had increased its share of the 182 seats in the state legislature from 117 to 126, against 51 for Congress, the main opposition. It achieved this despite the anti-incumbency vote so important in Indian elections. (This had not vanished altogether: 12 BJP ministers lost their seats.) Almost all the BJP gains were made in riot-hit constituencies: the party won 53 out of 65 such seats with big majorities, a 19% margin of victory, compared with 5% elsewhere.

Yet the BJP had been steadily losing control of state governments ever since 1999. In Gujarat, too, it had lost a string of by-elections. It was vulnerable on many counts: water shortages, rising unemployment and the collapse of co-operative banks with some 2m depositors.

The turning-point came on February 27^th. A train carrying Hindu activists back from Ayodhya, where they were campaigning for the construction of a temple on a disputed site, was attacked in the town of Godhra. A carriage was set on fire, and 58 people died. Muslims were blamed, and punished. More than 2,000 people died. By the time of the election, 220,000 people displaced by the riots were still away from home. Few areas are now integrated across communal lines. Even before this year’s troubles, Gujarat was becoming a state of ghettos.

Mr Modi and his government were accused of having done too little to stem the bloodshed, and even of having encouraged it. He became a hate figure for India’s English-language press and abroad. The feelings were mutual, and Mr Modi’s election campaign unabashedly harped on Godhra, and on Pakistan-sponsored “terrorism”. As a result of such terrorism, it was claimed, Hindus in Gujarat were in danger from Muslims. A mere 9% of Gujarat’s 50m people are Muslim.

That this tactic has paid off so handsomely is a triumph for Mr Modi and for his hardline brand of Hindutva nationalism. After the election, dejected liberals in Gujrarat were blaming themselves and the Congress party for their failure to counter the BJP strategy. Successful efforts to persuade Muslims to vote early were said to have backfired when television showed pictures of Muslims streaming into polling stations. The imam of a famous mosque was criticised for calling on Muslims to vote for Congress, which BJP turned to its own advantage.

In fact, apparently taking the Muslim vote for granted, Congress fielded only five Muslim candidates, and made its own soft Hindutva pitch for the nationalist vote. The party was disorganised and divided, and fielded too many candidates better known for their parentage than their local knowledge. In an election turned by Mr Modi into a contest between Gujaratis and the rest, it did not help that the Congress party leader, Sonia Gandhi, was born in Italy. But the opposition’s shortcomings cannot disguise the success of Mr Modi’s divisive campaign. Congress and the BJP now have to grapple with the implications for nine forthcoming state elections and a general election, due in 2004.

Both Atal Behari Vajpayee, the prime minister, a BJP moderate, and his hardline deputy, L.K. Advani, have said the result will change neither national policy nor electoral strategy. They may mean it. The BJP rules in coalition with 20 or so other parties, some of which might not tolerate an abrupt rightward lurch. And Gujarat is recognised as being a one-off, both in its history of communal violence, and in the local strength of the BJP and its notionally apolitical sister organizations, such as the World Hindu Council (the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or VHP), which played a big part in mobilising voters. In other states, where the BJP is not in power, the police are likely to be far more effective in nipping communal violence in the bud.

That will not stop Hindu extremists from trying to replicate their success. Prawin Togadia, a VHP leader, now forecasts an Indian Hindu state within two years. And the success in Gujarat is bound to have an impact on relations with Pakistan, which remain tense and hostile. On December 16^th, a court in Delhi sentenced three Indians to death for conspiring with Pakistan in an attack on India’s Parliament a year ago, in which nine people were killed. Even if Mr Vajpayee wanted to, he would find it hard to seek rapprochement with Pakistan in the new climate. At home, Hindutva causes will loom large again.

Mushirul Hasan, of Delhi, Jamia Milia Islamia university, argues that the elections were not a contest between Muslims and Hindus but between bigotry and modernity. This points to a less obvious consequence of Mr Modi’s triumph: a subtle shifting of the terms of India’s political debate, in which an ugly extreme moves ominously close to the centre.

Gujarat Elections: A harvest of hatred

Communal tension has once again reached alarming heights following the BJP’s impressive victory in the Gujarat elections. Reports have also indicated that not only clashes between the Hindus and the Muslims once again started taking place but few persons have also been killed. In addition, those Hindus who were regularly participating in the rallies organized by extremist Hindu organizations have also attacked many mosques. According to Gujarat police tension is continuing because both communities are reacting to even the slightest provocations from the other. The police have been witnessing riots almost every day since the elections.

After a series of defeats the BJP swept the polls in Gujarat securing 127 seats out of state assembly’s 182 members. The Congress won only 50 seats. This time the voters turn out was around 63 per cent out of the registered voters population of 33 millions. The BJP led by Nirandra Modi could not have won the elections on the basis of its governance record, which was extremely abysmal and poor in a comprehensive sense. Despite the poor governance record and unimpressive economic situation such a voters-turn out is indeed impressive. The opposition has also been highlighting the glaring cases of corruption. Yet one finds that instead of demonstrating some form of apathy towards the electoral process, the voters opted to come out in numbers. Why? What factors have influenced and motivated the Gujarat voters to opt for BJP in the elections?

While there are many factors that seemed to have facilitated BJP victory in Gujarat, some of the factors have contributed more than the others. Among the factors that seemed to have made substantial contributions towards an impressive BJP victory include effective use of communal card and promotion of Hindutva philosophy, the role of Congress and the limited voters choice. Irrespective of the warning generated by the writings of some of the Indian analysts who tend to highlight the inherent dangers of communalism, the Sangh Parivar seem to have opted to capitalize on the communal card in Gujarat. While there is no doubt that communalism have frequently surfaced in India and took a heavy toll of existing harmony periodically in different areas of India, it was rarely used as an effective instrument of a planned election strategy. The ability of BJP to employ communal cards in order to win state elections is loaded with dangerous implications.

Despite the fact that Mr.Vajpayee had viewed the Godhra incident as a dark blot on India and suggested to his colleagues not to use the incident in the Gujarat elections, the Gujarat BJP along with its other associates parties like VHP and Bajrang Dal, opted to use the incident in an attempt to garner support. As a matter of fact one could easily see innumerable T-Shirts depicting of burning train in the election rallies. The main purpose was to remind the voters the death of Hindus in the train.

One aspect of promoting Hindutva philosophy was to create fear psychosis among the Gujarat Hindus that the Muslims and more specifically Pakistan supported Muslims would take over if the BJP looses the elections. While it is a well known fact that the Muslim population in Gujarat ranges in between 10 to 11 percent of the total population of Gujarat and they are in no position to take over the Gujarat administration, the clever use of symbols and effective employment of carefully calculated tactics enabled the Modi entourage to inject fear among the ignorant and mostly emotionally charged Hindu population of Gujarat. Slogans like Mian Mushharraf were employed to denigrate the opponents. In addition, the undertaking of what is called Gurve yatra (Journey for Gujarat’s pride) coupled with effective exploitations of attacks on Akshdarham and Ragunath temples, all seemed to have contributed in widening the existing gulf within the Gujarati society. The VHP even wanted to stage Vijay Yatra (Victory Journey) to be culminated on 6^th Dec. the day Babri Masjid was demolished but because of Election Commission’s ruling they could not embark upon such a venture.

It needs to be stressed here that not only extremists Hindu groups like VHP and Bajrang Dal enthusiastically worked for Modi’s victory in Gujarat but important leaders like Mayawati, the Chief Minister of UP also came and campaigned for BJP in Gujarat. Since Mayawati enjoys certain amount of popularity among the harijan and dalits, the BJP seem to have employed all possible sources that can pay some dividends.

The second important factor that facilitated BJP’s victory in Gujarat is less than imaginative role of the main opposition Congress party. While the Congress often claims to be the champion of secularism, its role in Gujarat elections was totally different than what many voters expected. Many Indian writers described Congress as a ‘B’ team of BJP and its policy as a ‘Soft Hindutva’; the party seemed to have relegated its secular credentials in order to counter Sangh Parivar’s Hindutiva pursuits. This in fact was the major blunder on the part of Congress.

To make things even worse the Congress election campaign started from Ambernath mandir. Undoubtedly this was meant to woo the religious elements in Gujarat. Besides the Congress election campaign was led by people like Shanjar Singh, Amber Singh, Kamal Nath, Harren Pande who are known to be either linked with Hindutiva philosophy and BJP or organized the Rath yatra or were and some still are involved in corruption cases. The people of Gujarat were well familiar with the past performance of these people.

Another aspect of Congress flawed campaign in Gujarat revolves around abandoning of its well-established and well-known practice of arranging Iftar parties during the month of Ramadhan and not associating a Muslim figure in its campaign. Since the days of Nehru it had become a tradition to woo the Muslims during their religious month of Ramadhan. The Congress party and its members are known to throw many Iftar parties during this month but this time the Congress exercised a deliberately contrived restraint on Iftar culture. It seems that the Congress viewed the Gujarat electorates as totally non-secular and in consequence opted for what has been mentioned above as a ‘Soft Hindutva’.

The All India Muslim Ulema Council appealed to the Muslims of Gujarat that they should vote for Congress yet the Congress was unable to capitalize on such expression of support. On the other hand the BJP was able to paint the ruling alliance between Congress and Mufti Saeed’ Peoples Democratic Party in Kashmir in somewhat derogatory terms in order to strengthen its own election campaign.

The third major factor that led to the BJP’s victory revolves around the limited voters choice. The voters seemed to have been confronted with a limited choice; either to vote for Hindutva and accompanying communalism or vote for soft Hindutva. For obvious reason a voter is more likely to opt for those who are openly advocating Hinduisation of India rather than for those who are using Hindutva in soft term as an electoral strategy for Gujarat. Caught in a dilemma how to appear as agreeable to Hindutva philosophy and promoter of secularism at the same time, the Congress had no clear cut election strategy which confused many voters. Confronted with such types of complexities, a voter invariably opts either for easily comprehensible option or decides to abstain from voting altogether. In fact the voters in Gujarat had not much a choice.

The combination of the above mentioned factors enable the BJP to win the election rather convincingly. Undoubtedly the communal card paid the major amount of dividends but it cannot be brushed aside that the flawed Congress campaign in Gujarat facilitated the BJP to maximize the expected dividends. It is rather difficult to blame the voters who were caught between unenviable choices of voting either the A team or the B team. Obviously the choice would fall on the A team.

Regarding the future implications of an election victory that is directly the product of communalism and politics of hatred, suffice it to stress here that one can easily make many predictions depending upon the region and the attitude of the people involved along with policies accompanying electioneering processes in the given areas. While some regard that Modi-ism is unlikely to make gains in other states, the others maintain that the harvest of hatred may influence some but cannot engulf the majority in India. The results have also been read by some as the beginning of the end, meaning that the religious hatred would be spread all over India which in turn would end up in destroying the world’s largest democracy. However some pragmatist analysts saw it a possible beginning of hard-line Hindu revivalism. The politics of hatred cannot continuously pay dividends. It can produce some short-term gains but it could never become long lasting magic wand.

The landslide victory of right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in the state elections of Gujarat held recently cannot be termed as an event of less importance. After being involved in communal mayhem from late February this year till recently, the victory of BJP in Gujrat elections proves the intensity

and depth of political polarization and the fragility of secular order in India.

BJP has got 125 seats out of 181, Congress 52 and independents 4. In 1998 Gujrat elections, BJP had won 122 seats out of 173. Therefore, its performance in 2002 elections despite communal violence, is certainly better than 1998.

Analysts had hoped that the defeat of BJP in Gujrat elections would help better situation in that communal strife Indian state where thousands of Muslims and Hindus have become victims of religious fanaticism unleashed with the burning of train carrying Hindus pilgrimage at Godhra on February 27 and the subsequent retaliatory attacks carried out against Muslims with the backing of the state’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The fact that the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has congratulated Modi of winning elections, despite serious allegations against him of violating human rights and responsible for carnage against the Muslim minority, means the BJP can hope to give a good fight to secular forces during the national elections due in 2004.

Gujrat elections were a test case for BJP and its allies and their victory tend to prove that despite all the blames which were put on the right wing ultra Hindu parties, they still have a strong support base.

Four important implications of Gujrat elections could be figured out. First, BJP’s sweeping victory in Gujrat elections will give a new lease of life and a great sense of confidence to those elements in India who since quite long are committed to the slogan and program of “Hindutva.” By getting a massive electoral mandate, despite having a clear anti-Muslim bias and involvement in communal carnage, BJP will hope to salvage its position in other Indian states where it is now in opposition. Therefore, one can visualize a revitalized role of BJP in Indian politics and with a hope that it can save its rule in the next general elections. Second, election results in Gujrat also prove the fact that communal politics, despite considered an anathema in secular system has now got a legitimate status. That a party clearly propagating religious fanaticism and terrorism has been able to seek mandate from people. Such a situation will have long-term implications in Indian politics and result into the further erosion of the so-called secular order of the country. The day is not far when the hawkish elements within the BJP led by the Indian Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani will demand that India should be officially declared a Hindu state! If that happens, the world’s largest democracy will end up as the world’s largest communal and fanatic country.

Third, the rout of the Congress in the Gujrat elections will cast a deep shadow of doubt over the prospects of the return of that erstwhile party to power in the next general elections due in 2004. The President of Congress, Sonia Gandhi has blamed BJP of playing the communal card in order to get votes. But, it also means that Congress lacks proper program and leadership and has not been able to mobilize people against the religious based politics of BJP and its allies. One ray of hope, which had emerged after state elections in other Indian states, and the defeat of BJP in most of these elections that the ruling party on account of its highly communal politics will be booted out of power in next general elections may shatter after the results of Gujrat polls. Finally, “Pakistan bashing” which has become a state policy in India under the BJP rule will get more impetus after Gujrat polls. To a large extent, the BJP in its election campaign in Gujrat tried to use the Pakistan and ISI card and the issue of so-called cross border terrorism to get Hindu votes. After Gujrat elections, one can see more hardening of India’s Pakistan policy because now the BJP will feel more confident to adopt an uncompromising attitude on Islamabad. Had that party been defeated in Gujrat elections, it would have been under severe moral and political pressure to review its Pakistan policy. But that has not happened.

On the whole it will be too early to jump into sweeping conclusion on the implications of Gujrat elections, but one thing is certain: the future political order of India will see a lot of confrontation between those who want to make communalism a part of the political system and those who want to retain the secular structure of India. If one takes historical examples into account, there

are plenty of these to prove that through popular votes fascist and dictatorial minded people have come to power. It happened in Italy and in Germany during the inter-war period where on account of Italian and German nationalism, the worst type of fascist regimes came to power. India can be another such example because if the people of that country want to make their country a Hindu state at the expense of the rights of religious minorities, particularly Muslims, then the day is not far when the world’s largest democracy will be a bastion of religious fanaticism and communalism. Such a scenario will certainly not be a good omen for South Asia and also for the saner elements of Indian society.

An important lesson, which one can learn from election results of Gujrat, is the criminalization of communal politics in India. There was a time when religious intolerance was considered unacceptable and reprehensible in that country, but it seems those days are gone. Now, the religious right in India takes pride of taking their country to a direction, which can avenge 1,000 years of Muslim rule in the subcontinent. If Gujrat elections are used by the BJP and its allies to institutionalize the politics of hate and chauvinism it will also encourage religious right in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

One can only pray that sanity will prevail in India and in other South Asian countries because the region has already suffered colossal miseries and cannot afford to have another spell of communal bloodbath. Against this background, it should be the collective responsibility of the Indian civil society to preclude a situation in which insecurity and fear, which have gripped religious minorities of India, is stopped and doesn’t become a part of their country’s political culture. Moreover, if Muslim bashing is now a state policy of India then one cannot have any hope of better future for South Asia.

	CONSTITUENCY	WINNER	PARTY
1	ABDASA	NARENDRASINH JADEJA	BJP
2	MANDVI	SURESH MEHTA	BJP
3	BHUJ	AHIR S KARSHANBHAI	INC
4	MUNDRA (SC)	DHUA GOPALBHAI GABHABHAI	BJP
5	ANJAR	AACHARYA NIMABEN BHAVESH	INC
6	RAPAR	BABUBHAI MEGHJI SHAH	INC
7	DASADA (SC)	MAKWANA M MAGANLAL	INC
8	WADHWAN	DHANRAJBHAI	BJP
9	LIMBDI	BHARVAD B JIVANBHAI	INC
10	CHOTILA	JINJARIYA P SAVSIBHAI	IND
11	HALVAD	KAVADIYA J RAMJIBHAI	BJP
12	DHRANGADHRA	I K JADEJA	BJP
13	MORVI	AMRUTIYA K SHIVABHAI	BJP
14	TANKARA	KUNDARIYA M KALYANJI	BJP
15	WANKANER	SOMANI J JITENDRABHAI	BJP
16	JASDAN	KUNVARJIBHAI M BAVALIYA	INC
17	RAJKOT-I	TAPUBHAI LIMBASIYA	BJP
18	RAJKOT-II	VAJUBHAI VALLA	BJP
19	RAJKOT RURAL (SC)(Rajkot-II)	VAJUBHAI VALLA	BJP
20	GONDAL	JAYRAJSINH TEMUBHA JADEJA	BJP
21	JETPUR	KORAT JASUBEN SAVAJIBAHI	BJP
22	DHORAJI	VITTHAL RADADIA	INC
23	UPLETA	PRAVIN MANKADIA	BJP
24	JODIYA	BHOJANI PARSOTTAN	BJP
25	JAMNAGAR	VASUBEN TRIVEDI	BJP
26	JAMNAGAR	VASUBEN TRIVEDI	BJP
27	KALAWAD	FALDU RANCHOOD	BJP
28	JAMJODHPUR	SAPRIA CHIMAN	BJP
29	BHANVAD	MADAM V ARJANBHAI	INC
30	KHAMBHALIA	CHAWDA KARUBHAI	BJP
31	DWARKA	MANEK PABUBHA VIRAMBHA	INC
32	PORBANDAR	ARJUNBHAI D MODHAVADIYA	INC
33	KUTIYANA	ODEDARA K DULABHAI	BJP
34	MANGROL	CHUDASAMA C KANJIBHAI	INC
35	MANAVADAR	SUREJA R GORDHANBHAI	BJP
36	KESHOD (SC)	BORICHA M LAKHABHAI	BJP
37	TALALA	GOHIL SHIVABHAI JERAMBHAI	BJP
38	SOMNATH	BARAD JESABHAI BHANABHAI	INC
39	UNA	VANSH PUNJABHAI BHIMABHAI	INC
40	VISAVADAR	BHALALA KANUBHAI MEPABHAI	BJP
41	MALIYA	JOSHI BHIKHABHAI GALABHAI	INC
42	JUNAGARH	MAHENDRA MASHROO	BJP
43	BABRA	UNDHAD B NATHABHAI	BJP
44	LATHI	BHECHARBHAI BHADANI	BJP
45	AMRELI	PURSHOTTAM RUPALA	BJP
46	DHARI	BALUBHAI JIVRAJBHAI TANTI	BJP
47	KODINAR	SOLANKI D BOGHABHAI	BJP
48	RAJULA	SOLANKI H ODHAVJIBHAI	BJP
49	BOTAD	SAURABH PATEL	BJP
50	GADHADA (SC)	MARU PRAVINBHAI TIDABHAI	INC
51	PALITANA	MANDAVIYA M LAXMANBHAI	BJP
52	SIHOR	NAKARANI K HIRAJIBHAI	BJP
53	KUNDLA	KALUBHAI VIRANI	BJP
54	MAHUVA	KANUBHAI V KALSARIYA	BJP
55	TALAJA	GOHIL SHIVABHAI JERAMBHAI	BJP
56	GHOGHO	PURSHOTTAM SOLANKI	BJP
57	BHAVNAGAR NORTH	TRIVEDI M SHANTIBHAI	BJP
58	BHAVNAGAR SOUTH	SHAKTI SINGH	INC
59	DHANDHUKA	BHARATBHAI B PANDYA	BJP
60	DHOLKA	BHUPENDRASINGH CHUDASAMA	BJP
61	BAVLA (SC)	LAKUM KANTIBHAI RAMABHAI	BJP
62	MANDAL	PATEL PRAGJIBHAI NARANBHAI	BJP
63	VIRAMGAM	DODIYA VAJUBHAI PARMABHAI	BJP
64	SARKHEJ	AMITBHAI ANILCHANDRA SHAH	BJP
65	DASKROI	PATEL BABUBHAI JAMNADAS	BJP
66	DEHGAM	JAGDISH THAKOR	INC
67	SABARMATI	PATEL J BABUBHAI	BJP
68	ELLIS BRIDGE	BHAVIN SHETH	BJP
69	DARIAPUR-KAZIPUR	BHARAT BAROT	BJP
70	SHAHPUR	KAUSHIK PATEL	BJP
71	KALUPUR	FARUQ SHAIK	INC
72	ASARWA	JADEJA P BHAGVATSINH	BJP
73	RAKHIAL	GORDHAN ZADAPHIA	BJP
74	SHAHER KOTDA (SC)	JITHUBHAI VAGHELA	BJP
75	KHADIA	ASHOK BUTT	BJP
76	JAMALPUR	USMANGHANI DEVDIVALA	INC
77	MANINAGAR	NARENDRA MODI	BJP
78	NARODA	MAYA KODNANI	BJP
79	GANDHINAGAR	C J CHAVDA	INC
80	KALOL	ATUL K PATEL	BJP
81	KADI	THAKOR BALDEVJI CHANDUJI	INC
82	JOTANA (SC)	ISHWARBHAI D MAKWANA	BJP
83	MEHSANA	ANILBHAI T PATEL	BJP
84	MANSA	PRO MANGALBHAI PATEL	BJP
85	VIJAPUR	PATEL KANTIBHAI RAMABHAI	BJP
86	VISNAGAR	PATEL P MOHANLAL	BJP
87	KHERALU	DESAI RAMILABEN RAMBHAI	BJP
88	UNJHA	PATEL N LALLUBHAI	BJP
89	SIDHPUR	BALVANTSINH C RAJPUT	INC
90	VAGDOD	THAKOR JODHAJI GALABJI	INC
91	PATAN	ANANDIBEN PATEL	BJP
92	CHANASMA	DESAI M DEVAJIBHAI	INC
93	SAMI	THAKOR D VIRAJIBHAI	BJP
94	RADHANPUR	CHAUDHARY S LAGDHIRBHAI	BJP
95	VAV	HEMAJI RAJPUT	INC
96	DEODAR	KESHAJI CHAUHAN	INC
97	KANKREJ	KHANPURA D LAKHABHAI	INC
98	DEESA	RABARI G HAMIRABHAI	INC
99	DHANERA	PATEL H HIRABHAI	BJP
100	PALANPUR	KACHORIYA K DHARAMDAS	BJP
101	VADGAM (SC)	DOLATBHAI PARMAR	INC
102	DANTA	MAHESHKKUMAR GADHVI	BJP
103	KHEDBRAHMA (ST)	AMARSINH CHAUDHARY	INC
104	IDAR (SC)	VORA RAMANLAL ISHWARLAL	BJP
105	BHILODA	DR. ANIL JOSHIYARA	INC
106	HIMATNAGAR	CHAVADA RINH NARSINH	BJP
107	PRANTIJ	RATHOD D SHANKARSINH	BJP
108	MODASA	PARMAR D VAKHATSINH	BJP
109	BAYAD	SOLANKI R RUPSINHJI	INC
110	MEGHRAJ	PARMAR B GIRVATSINH	BJP
111	SANTRAMPUR	PANDYA P DAMODAR	BJP
112	JHALOD (ST)	KATARA BHURABHAI JETABHAI	BJP
113	LIMDI (ST)	BHURIYA M SOMJIBHAI	BJP
114	DOHAD (ST)	DAMOR T BADIYABHAI	BJP
115	LIMKHEDA (ST)	BABUBHAI S BHABHOR	BJP
116	DEVGADH BARIA	BACHUBHAI KHABAD	BJP
117	RAJGADH	CHAUHAN F VAKHATSINH	BJP
118	HALOL	PARMAR J CHANDRASINHJEE	BJP
119	KALOL	CHAUHAN P PRATAPSINH	BJP
120	GODHRA	HARESH BHATT	BJP
121	SHEHRA	AHIR JETHABHAI GHELABHAI	BJP
122	LUNAVADA	MALIWAD KALUBHAI HIRABHAI	BJP
123	RANDHIKPUR (ST)	JASWANTSINH SUMANBHAI	BJP
124	BALASINOR	RAJESH KUMAR PATHAK	BJP
125	KAPADVANJ	BIMAL SHAH	BJP
126	THASRA	CHAUHAN B RAYSINH	BJP
127	UMRETH	PATEL V CHHOTABHAI	BJP
128	KATHLAL	ZALA G JESANGBHAI	INC
129	MEHMEDABAD	CHAUHAN S BHALABHAI	BJP
130	MAHUDHA	THAKOR NATVARSINH FULSINH	INC
131	NADIAD	DESAI P VINUBHAI	BJP
132	CHAKALASI	S VAGHELA	INC
133	ANAND	PATEL DILIPBHAI MANIBHAI	BJP
134	SARSA	SOLANKI J AMARSINHJI	BJP
135	PETLAD	CHANDRAKANT D PATEL	BJP
136	SOJITRA (SC)	AMBALAL ASHABHAI ROHIT	BJP
137	MATAR	RAKESH RAO ADVOCATE	BJP
138	BORSAD	BHARAT SOLANKI	BJP
139	BHADRAN	PARMAR R DHIRSINH	INC
140	CAMBAY	SHUKAL S MADHUSUDAN	BJP
141	CHHOTA UDAIPUR (ST)	SHANKAR BHAI RATHWA	BJP
142	JETPUR	VARCHAI BARIYA	BJP
143	NASVADI (ST)	BHIL KANTIBHAI TRIKAMBHAI	BJP
144	SANKHEDA (ST)	KANTIBHAI TADVI	BJP
145	DABHOI	CHANDRAKANT PATEL	BJP
146	SAVLI	UPENDRA SINGH	BJP
147	BARODA CITY	BHUPENDRA LAKHAWALA	BJP
148	SAYAJIGANJ	JITENDRA SUKHADIA	BJP
149	RAOPURA	YOGESH PATEL	BJP
150	VAGHODIA	MADHUBHAI SHRIVASTAV	BJP
151	BARODA RURAL	DILUBHA CHUDASAMA	BJP
152	PADRA	POONAM PARMAR	BJP
153	KARJAN (SC)	NARESH KANODIA	BJP
154	JAMBUSAR	MORI CHHATRASINH PUJABHAI	BJP

That Narendra Modi and his ilk won the elections is and should be a matter of sadness and concern to Indian civil society in general.

Though he has won an overwhelming majority in the Gujarat assembly, Modi acknowledged the inevitable possibility of common sense and reasonableness reducing his prospects of victory when he kept complaining about the Election Commission delaying the elections.

He felt that with the passage of time the pernicious emotions which he encouraged in the Gujarat electorate will fade away, that the abiding and resilient values of tolerance and harmony will reassess themselves, thereby robbing him of the benefits which he anticipated from an angry and assertive Hindu populace. In the event, he did not lose anything at all. It is worth examining why this happened.

The nexus between the Mumbai- and Dubai-based criminal mafia and a small segment of the Muslim population in Gujarat had affected peace and a sense of security of civil society there. The burning of a train coach at Godhra was in a manner a culminating catalyst.

Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal took advantage of the incident to further their agenda, to perpetuate themselves in power, on the basis of the resentment and anger generated by the Godhra incident. Instead of trying to bring the culprits of the Godhra arson to book, Modi on all counts connived at and encouraged a state-wide pogrom against Muslims, which proved to be a successful exercise in polarising the civil society along Hindu-Muslim lines.

Public pronouncements and the political discourse in Gujarat from March till December was characterised by provocative and violent rhetoric by leaders of the BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal. The rhetoric was not just anti-Muslim but also directed against political parties that emphasised the importance of commitment to secular ideals. A pejorative jargon was introduced in the political lexicon, namely, “pseudo-secularists.” The adjective was applied with equal sarcasm and disdain to the Congress party and all political parties that opposed the BJP.

An external factor that compounded this situation must be noted. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) took full advantage of the orientation of BJP politics in Gujarat and fomented Hindu-Muslim antagonisms that found a critical and macro-level expression in the terrorist attack masterminded by Muslim terrorists on the Akshardham temple, terrorists who belonged to Pakistan-based militant organisations.

The resentment generated by the attack on the temple beautifully served the political objectives of Modi and the leadership of VHP and Bajrang Dal. Modi's electoral campaign focussed on the Pakistani terrorist threat and by implication a threat from the Muslim community in Gujarat, arousing emotions, apprehensions and resentment of Hindus. Modi did not have to refer to the tragedy of Godhra specifically to advocate his cause.

These were the negative factors that contributed to the BJP's victory in Gujarat. But one must also acknowledge the creative and positive side of the BJP's pre-election activities spread over several months.

The BJP and its allies engaged themselves in a systematic political campaign to woo the rural and adivasi (tribal) voters. There are reliable reports that VHP cadres undertook a lot of voluntary social and developmental work amongst the rural population, particularly the adivasis, who reportedly were subject to some exploitative activities by the urban entrepreneurial community, which includes some Muslims.

Reminiscent of the National Socialist Movement in Germany in the early 1930s, Muslim exploitation was alleged as a factor affecting the well being of the tribesperson, an accusation which is not entirely accurate. Exploitative activities originated in the urban economic classes transcending communal or religious identities. But then electoral politics are not a matter of logic or truth.

In contrast, the main challenge to these narrow communal orientations obviously did not get its act together. The Congress did not have a cadre of workers who matched the performance of VHP and Bajrang Dal. With the benefit of hindsight there is an emerging consensus that the nomination of Shankersinh Vaghela, a recent defector from BJP, as president of the Gujarat Congress did not go down well with the older Congress cadres.

Vaghela did not have much credibility with the average Gujarati voter who viewed him as a political opportunist. The voter also viewed the decision of the Congress’ central leadership as a purely tactical move without any ideological solidity.

The distribution of party ticket to candidates was not considered fair by grassroot members of the Gujarat Congress. Vaghela's recommendations for granting the ticket to his nominees generated internal contradictions in the Congress party's grass-root electoral campaign.

It is significant that a majority of seats won by the Congress went to established members of the Congress and not to the new converts to the party who joined the electoral fray under Vaghela. There is general consensus that the Congress might have got even a fewer number of seats but for the personal participation in the campaign by Sonia Gandhi and some other leaders who came from outside Gujarat. Even here the Congress leaders responsible for managing the Gujarat elections unimaginatively prevented some effective Congress leaders from campaigning for the party.

The Congress defeat has implications not just in Gujarat but in other parts of the country as shown in the defeat of its candidates in the Rajasthan assembly by-elections. Modi's victory will have negative implications in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The Congress would have to be methodical, systematic and politically sensitive to counter the pernicious implications of the election results in Gujarat. The party leadership should rely on local leaders in each electoral area: though the time is short and there is a lack of permanent cadres, Congress workers at the field level should be most assiduously and systematically utilised for the campaign.

The campaign itself should in substance be rooted on an assessment of local concerns, issues and aspirations, and not on ambiguous and general assessments given by party figures who may not be really knowledgeable about local conditions, interests and expectations. Both in speech and organisational events the Congress should re-acquire its original ideological integrity as conceived by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Most importantly, in the short term, the Congress should seriously examine coming to understandings and alliances with like-minded political parties for the forthcoming state elections and the next general election, which are not too far away. There is of course the necessity of either re-vamping or establishing institutional arrangements to organise the party’s election campaign.

As far as Gujarat is concerned, Modi would try to re-establish his credibility as a moderate and impartial chief minister -- which he is not. The likes of Togadias who have been talking about giving the same facilities and status to Muslims in India as Hindus have in Pakistan are not going to help matters. This approach is a recipe for disintegration of our civil society, as our Muslim compatriots constitute more than 10 per cent of our population.

Modi has asserted that his victory has redeemed Gujarat's pride. He has not spelt out the constituent elements of this pride. To me Gujarat has much to be proud of Saint Narsi Mehta, of Mahatma Gandhi, of Bhulabhai Desai, of Vithalbhai Patel and Vallabhbhai Patel.

Gujarat's pride is in the landmarks of India's freedom struggle “at Kheda”, “at Sardoli” and in the Dandi March. Gujarat’s pride lies in its incontrovertible credentials as one of the foremost entrepreneurial states in India. This pride does not lie in spurious Hindutva or misrepresentation of the pristine values of Hindu religion.

Modi's electoral victory in Gujarat is not the victory of pride but irrational prejudices.

NEW DELHI: High on adrenalin after the Gujarat poll sweep, BJP chief Venkaiah Naidu on Monday left no one in any doubt that the Hindutva card was here to stay and that the party won't be shy of playing it.

As BJP leaders met at the first national executive meeting after the Gujarat polls at the Parliament House Annexe here on Monday, Naidu swore by Hindutva, describing the Gujarat verdict as “a mandate for the ideology”.

“The Gujarat message,” he declared, “is loud and clear. The message is that in the name of politically motivated secularism, the countrymen are not willing any more to tolerate...Hindu-bashing...” He went on to proclaim dreamily that “one day our nation would travel on the path of the ideology that has all along been guiding us and that moment of reckoning is not very far.”

Certainly not, if the BJP has its way, for it would strive hard to fight the coming elections in nine states and the next Lok Sabha polls on the same plank.

In order to debunk a strong suspicion that the BJP may abandon a liberal Atal Behari Vajpayee as this “moment or reckoning” approaches, Naidu went out of his way to cosy up to him. The effort did make Naidu sound a little bombastic, describing the Prime Minister as a “mahapurush...the founder of our party and the fountain of inspiration for all of us” and endowed with “priceless assets for our party and our nation” like “wisdom, sagacity, experience and his personal quality of carrying people of all shades along...”

Making up for whatever Naidu left unsaid was a massive garland, which donned Vajpayee’s neck at the outset. There was a consolation prize for his deputy, L K Advani, too, he was given the same honour minus the praise which was showered on Vajpayee.

The party’s Gujarat hero, Narendra Modi, was missing at the inaugural session, busy in a Cabinet meeting at Ahmedabad. He showed up to a loud applause in the afternoon.

His absence, however, did not deter Naidu from proclaiming that Modi “fought like a lion in the face of unprecedented calumny against him and our party and made, on counting day, his opponents run for cover.” He described the polls as a Modi-versus Sonia Gandhi contest and said “the results have shown what an unequal bout it was.”

The results, according to him, had “demolished the myth that the Congress is getting revived on account of its leadership.”

While hammering Hindutva home, Naidu shrewdly skipped the contentious issues of Ayodhya, a common civil code and Article 370 but demanded "an effective nation-wide law against conversion by fraudulent means" and abolition of the ineffective law to check infiltration from Bangladesh.

At the same time, he made a veiled appeal to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to tone down its rhetoric. He said: “I would also like to make an appeal to those who speak in the name of Hindutva but whose pronouncements sometimes sound as if they are only reaching to the extremism and intolerance that has taken roots across the border. Hindutva is a noble and elevating concept...Hindutva and extremism cannot go together...”

Naidu vowed to “replicate” the Gujarat “collective work” everywhere and said that the party would target the Congress on its non-performance, misrule, inefficiency, corruption, worsening law and order situation and non-fulfilment of promises in the states ruled

DMK's warning CHENNAI: DMK president M Karunanidhi indicated on Monday that his party would pull out of the NDA if the BJP adopted Hindutva as its policy.

He was reacting to the statement of Union Minister and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav in Ratlam on Sunday that “if the BJP adopts the Hindutva agenda in the Lok Sabha elections, we well sever relations with the party.”

“There is not much of a difference between the views of Yadav and mine,” said Karunanidhi. “The Hindutva ideology is not acceptable to the DMK and this was clearly underlined even during the launch of the National Democratic Alliance.”

Venkaiah asks BJP to replicate the Gujarat Spirit

New Delhi: Playing the BJP’s favourite game of calibrated Hindutva, party president M Venkaiah Naidu ticked off the VHP – without naming it -- while calling on the party faithful “to replicate the Gujarat spirit”. He stressed that the victory in the state “was a mandate for the ideology that has always held the nation’s interest as its core strength”.

Addressing the national executive, Naidu skilfully walked the ideological tightrope: “I would like to appeal to those who speak in the name of Hindutva but whose pronouncements sometimes sound as if they are only reacting to the extremism and intolerance that has taken roots across the border. The BJP is firm in its belief that Hindutva and extremism/intolerance cannot go together.”

Having used the VHP in the Gujarat campaign – permitting 20 of its members to be elected to the state assembly, not to mention the special stage for the sadhus at the Modi swearing in on Sunday in Ahmedabad – Naidu sought to distance his party from the organisation, something that the BJP has done many times in the past.

But simultaneously, to put the BJP rank and file on track for the forthcoming assembly elections, Naidu said, “If anybody asks us whether we would repeat the Gujarat ‘experiment’ elsewhere, our answer, should be: “Yes, we shall replicate our Gujarat ‘experience’ everywhere, because in Gujarat we have again proved to ourselves that collective work is the key to success.” He also stressed: “The voters reposed their faith in the BJP because the choice before them was between the forces of nationalism and pseudo-secularism. Gujarat was not a mere political victory, it was a mandate for the ideology.”

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi came in for praise for electrifying the atmosphere in the country and energising the rank and file by fighting “like a lion in the face of unprecedented calumny against him and our party, and made his opponents run for cover.”

Repeating what he said after he took over as president, he said there was no need to be apologetic about the BJP ideology of cultural nationalism nor about its commitment to the NDA agenda. Now, the party should campaign for an effective nationwide law against conversion to expose those who sought to defame the BJP and its ideology and compromised on issues that weakened national security. Conversion, he said, was not merely an issue that legitimately agitated all Hindus but was closely linked to the interests of national integration, security and social cohesion.

Describing the Gujarat elections as a “Modi vs Sonia” contest, he said, “the results have shown what an unequal bout it was.” The Gujarat elections would be remembered not only for the nature and scale of BJP’s victory, Naidu stressed but also for the “Viciousness of the anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva anti-Hindu campaign conducted by the Congress and the communists before, during and, sadly, even after the polls.” According to him, Sonia took the lead by making “offensive and outlandish” pronouncements, the worse being her charge that Gujarat, the land of Gandhi, was turning into the land of Godse: “This was a slur on the asmita and atma gaurav of Gujarat, forcing Modi to launch his Gaurav Yatra. Today the whole world

People were influenced by Shri Modi’s rhetoric

December 15, 2002,