The Hindu : 'Hindutva card will not work in other States'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 25, 2002

National

National

'Hindutva card will not work in other States'

By Our Special Correspondent

BHUBANESWAR DEC. 24. The Congress spokesman, S. Jaipal Reddy, said today that the Gujarat experience would not click in the States going to the polls next year.

"What happened in Gujarat would never happen in other States," Mr. Reddy said adding that the BJP, which wanted to exploit the religious sentiments of the people to get their votes, would not succeed in these States. The "Hindutva card'' had not worked in Uttar Pradesh, where the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had said that the BJP would win even without getting the Muslim votes.

Terming the BJP victory in Gujarat as an "exception", he said though the BJP rule in Uttar Pradesh had lasted a full term, it ended up a poor third in the Assembly elections.

He alleged that the BJP, after its victory in Gujarat, was again trying to rake up the issue of "cultural nationalism" which only meant "naked communalism".

And the support being extended by the NDA partners, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, and his Orissa counterpart, Naveen Patnaik, to the BJP, were "classic examples of dangerous and opportunistic politics."

They were supporting the NDA basically because they had assumed that their main Opposition was the Congress.

In the process, both parties were allowing the BJP to push its agenda.

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