No Hinduisation of NDA: Fernandes

MANDATE 2004

During a short break from campaigning defence minister Geroge Fernandes met Business Standard for an interview in New Delhi, just after the release of the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) agenda for governance.
Excerpts:

While the NDA agenda for governance pushes the Hindu project through seeking a ban on cow slaughter and taking a stand on the temple, it is silent about the Socialist project like preventing consumerism, redistribution of assets and distributive justice. You have been used to endorse several things. Are you comfortable with this ?

The Agenda is essentially development-oriented. To distribute assets equitably, you need development. Against the backdrop of the socialism of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi that we have experienced and the Marxism of the Marxists, we know where that kind of socialism has taken us.

Ultimately, creation of wealth is possible only through development. For 50 years, there has been virtually no development of infrastructure. We had hopeless roads. Railways, power. In all these areas the country was in a bad shape. In five years, we have tried to bring the nation out of all that. Now, we are looking at carrying those plans to fruition.

You said something about Hinduism. There is the point about the temple (in the agenda) about which no one should have reason to complain. We are asserting on creating a communalism-free secure society, which the makers of the Constitution had visualised. Ayodhya has to be resolved so that we can get on with development.

The agenda promises a riot-free India. But to those who've lived through Gujarat in 2002, this sounds like a cruel joke, especially since the law is taking its course to punish those involved in rioting extremely slowly. There is no concrete programme spelt out which will ensure there are no riots.

The agenda expresses the determination of the NDA to see that conditions which give rise to communal tensions are taken care of.

There is not one programme but more than one that addresses problems and issues that bother the religious minority communities. This will create conditions to put an end to riots and other such negative developments.

Are you worried that collaboration with the BJP has led to a Hindu radicalisation, an across -the-board Hinduisation? More Socialists now wear their religious heart on their sleeve than ever before.

There has been no Hinduisation of the NDA. There are people and institutions which take an extreme view of things. For instance I was at Nagpur at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani to accompany his Bharat Uday Yatra.

There was a late night meeting at Chitinis Park that was sought to be disrupted by the Bajrang Dal. They were carrying placards and raising slogans about the Ayodhya temple.

I was there when Advani asked them to end their demonstration and told them this meeting was about elections. To mobilise people around an agenda, we should think beyond the Ayodhya issue, about five years on the economic front.

"I understand your concerns. They have to be dealt with" he told them and went on to explain about the court of law. He also told them about efforts to resolve the matter through talks and asked them to wait.

If anything the leadership of the BJP has been making efforts to see that what happened in Gujarat does not happen again.

You have been saying the government should dismiss the RJD government on grounds of law and order. But Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani said in his speech In Patna recently that a people's movement must throw out Laloo yadav...

As I said, I'm speaking my mind out. There must be President's Rule in Bihar, to let the people elect a government that will end jungle raj once for all.