KANYAKUMARI, 11 March 2004 — Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani kicked off a blistering pre-election campaign for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday from this southern tip of India.
In all his addresses in Tamil Nadu and Kerala on the journey, Advani toned down the Hindu nationalist rhetoric and portrayed India as a rising superpower that has left behind the socialist baggage associated with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is seeking a fresh mandate on the back of a strong economy that is projected to grow by eight percent this year.
In sharp contrast to his similar campaigns that triggered sectarian violence in many parts of India, Advani sought to allay the fears of 140-million strong Muslims that the BJP-led government’s return would be against their interests.
Advani was flanked by BJP’s top Muslim leaders-federal minister Shahnavaz Hussein and former ministers Arif Mohammed Khan and Muktar Abbas Naqvi-in this Bharat Uday Yatra, or India Shining Tour.
Also present to flag off the two-phased 7,870-km journey crisscrossing the country was Syed Zainul Abdin Ali, the chief cleric of the Sufi holy shrine in the western town of Ajmer.
Ali said no party can ignore the interests of the minorities and that he was there to underline the importance of secularism
“This is not a Hindu rally. This is a political rally,” said Naqvi, who is also the party’s general secretary. “The message of this rally is development, security and prosperity.”
Advani will address public meetings, some from atop his bulletproof minivan that has been turned into his Home Ministry’s mobile office with advanced communication facilities, in 122 of 545 parliamentary election constituencies during the 33-day journey.
Advani, who launched Somnath Rat Yatra in 1990 that culminated in the demolition of Babri Masjid two years later, avoided his pet theme of ‘pseudo secularism’ this time and instead launched a scathing attack on the main opposition Congress party accusing it of ‘wilfully and wantonly destabilizing the polity.’
“Dark clouds of uncertainty gathered over the world’s largest democracy (during the 50 years of Congress rule). Instability and misrule naturally had the effect of debilitating the development process and worsening problems before the nation,” he said.
The Vajpayee government had tackled these problems, including strained Indo-Pak ties, insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, poverty and poor infrastructure, during the last six years evoking admiration of Indians as well as rest of the world and ‘everyone says India is shining’, he said.
“The message of this Yatra is India’s time has come. Our journey toward prosperity for all, toward India’s all round development and toward India as a great power has begun. The 21st century will become India’s century,” he said.
The election managers of BJP, which has led a 23-party coalition since 1998, believe India’s relative youth provides a rare opportunity to change permanently its political character.
Almost 70 percent of India’s 1.05-billion-strong population is under the age of 35 and more than half is under 25.
