From: DXA4@PSUVM.PSU.EDU (Dinesh Agrawal)
Newsgroups: misc.news.southasia
Subject: India - BJP Leader Calls For Peace
Date: 26 Jan 93 20:22:11 GMT
Organization: Penn State University


Date	: January 25, 1993
From	: Dinesh Agrawal
Source	: Times of India, January 13, 1993

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ADVANI CALLS FOR PEACE AND MID-TERM ELECTIONS

New Delhi: Mr. L.K Advani today appealed for peace in Bombay and he denied
that the disputed shrines in Mathura and Varanasi were on the BJP's agenda.

   Addressing a joint press conference along with the party president, 
Dr. M.M Joshi (the first after the December 6 demolition) Mr. Advani, 
viewed the current situation as a 'turning point in the history of the 
country'. He said the BJP was the best guarantee of communal peace.

   There was clearly an effort to keep within the parameters of mainstream
politics even while maintaining an aggressive posture on the demolition issue.
He also sought to distance the BJP from the VHP by saying that the BJP always
took 'independent' decisions and that there was no move whatsoever to include
the shrines at Mathura and Varanasi in the BJP's agenda.

   DISTORTED MEANING: "I am not at all ashamed of the Ayodhya demolition,
there is no question of feeling so. But it was unfortunate, since it was not
part of our scheme of things. If, during the last one and a half month gory
incidents have taken place, one factor that has contributed the most is the
repeated description of the abandoned, dilapidated structure as a mosque. 
This distorted meaning given to secularism has made people view the 
demolition as the desecration of a mosque," Mr Advani said.

  Expressing "intense anguish" over the disturbances in Bombay and Ahamdabad,
he said he would visit the two state capitals from January 15. Violence, he
said, had to be stopped, and indicated that the BJP would be willing to join
an all party effort to reduce tension in the metropolis. He said the Janata
Dal leader, Mr George Farnandes, had spoken to him yesterday on the situation
in Bombay.

  NO TALK OF SHRINE: During the meeting of the party's working committee this
morning, it was stressed that the BJP should not take up the issue of the two
disputed shrines in Varanasi and Mathura. Indeed, it was felt that party
leaders should not even speak about the two places. The leaders felt that
efforts should be made to 'accommodate' the Muslims, but not to appease them,
particularly in the view of the possibility of the minority community turning
towards BJP now that every other political party had let the community down.

   In Mr Advani's perception, the meaning given to secularism during the last
four decades was inconsistent with what the framers of the constitution and
the leaders of the freedom struggle had envisaged. The meaning given to it
had been so distorted that the BJP, he said, was convinced that it was this
distortion which had fractured the Indian society. If the Ayodhya movement
had not 'channelised' the resentment of the majority over this 'distortion',
the consequences would have been terrible, he said.

   DISTORTION ALLEGED: "We are convinced that we represent the thinking that
informed the framers of the Constitution, leaders of the freedom struggle,
and is in line with the values of our civilization. Did the secularism that was
practised so far, and which was accepted as the axiomatic truth by thinking
elite, unite the country? Don't blame everything on Ayodhya. In fact the
Ayodhya movement has come as a challenge to the fissiparous forces and those
parties which adhered to the distorted meaning of secularism," Mr. Advani said.

   Over a period of time, Mr Advani said, the Muslims would come to believe in,
and accept, the "dynamo of cultural nationalism". The best guarantee for
communal harmony was the acceptance of this 'cultural nationalism', he said,
and claimed that the BJP had the best capacity to govern the country and
maintain communal harmony. According to him, there had been no breakdown of
communication between the BJP and the Muslims. The BJP would do its best to
"repair" the damage done in places like Bombay.

  POSITION CLARIFIED: It was not his case that a temple existed at the disputed
site in Ayodhya centuries ago, Mr Advani said. In fact, the party's position
was that the former structure had been a 'de facto' temple for decades, and
even though the Muslims of the temple town had abandoned it, political parties
of various hues had extended support to the Babari Masjid Action Committee.

   The Ayodhya movement, he said, had acted as catalyst in so far as the
ideological debate on the content of Indian nationalism and the true meaning
of secularism were concerned. In his view, the ideological debate that started
in November 1990, when the VP Singh government faced a no-confidence motion,
had been intensified today. Dec.6, the party's national executive felt, had
triggerd the many issues involved, and these would be highlighted during the
BJP's public awareness programmes.

  MID-TERM POLL PLEA: Coming down heavily on the PV Narasimha Rao government,
Mr Advani claimed that a paralysis had gripped New Delhi, and the only way out
of the 'impasse' was to hold a mid-term election. The Congress government may
have a majority in the Lok Sabha, with the support of some 'motley' groups,
but in Mr Advani's perception, it had "lost its mandate". For a government
that could go so far as to arrest BJP leaders on "concocted charges", there
could be no limit to its actions against those who propounded a different
point of view.

   Dr. Joshi spoke of the BJP's objective of making India the "first power in
the world" and urged the people to help it achieve it. The solution to the
country's problems demanded a new perspective, he said and added that old
and discredited solutions would no more work. The 'opportunity' before the
nation now, he said, should be seized in order to establish a permanent
'bhai-chara' (brotherhood) between the Hindus and the Muslims.

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