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Monday, Apr 19, 2004

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`BJP conspiring to divide Muslim vote'

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, APRIL 18. The All India Milli Council today accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of conspiring to divide the votes of Muslims with the intention of weakening their political power. "The BJP is making an all-out attempt to implement its communal and fascist agenda in the Lok Sabha elections,'' Manzoor Alam, Milli Council's secretary general, said here.

Dr. Alam, who was here to interact with the Milli Council's representatives from various districts of Rajasthan, said the BJP had given no signals of any change in its stand on the Ayodhya issue, uniform civil code and Article 370 of the Constitution and had failed to implement its national agenda for governance during the past five years. "Against this backdrop, the BJP has adopted a new strategy of enticing Muslims to its fold so as to divide the Muslim community in view of its significant strength in a large number of constituencies,'' Dr. Alam told reporters while alleging that it was a "conspiracy'' to dilute Muslims' opposition to the BJP.

Dr. Alam, who is also national president of the Milli Council's Political Affairs Committee, said the BJP had a track record of "minority- bashing, hate campaign and organised violence'', the worst form of which was witnessed in Gujarat in 2002, and its sectarian agenda could not be hidden behind its "new-found love'' for Muslims. "The BJP cannot defraud voters any more. It changes its masks to suit the occasion -- the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, first claims that the BJP can form a Government without Muslims' support, then preaches Raj Dharma to Narendra Modi, and then himself becomes a steadfast Swayamsevak,'' he pointed out.

He charged the BJP with hoodwinking the public opinion by inviting Muslims to join the party on the one hand and encouraging the likes of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders, Ashok Singhal, Praveen Togadia and Giriraj Kishore, to indulge in anti-Muslim tirade during the election campaign, on the other.

Dr. Alam claimed that the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, had resorted to the "old divisive tactic'' of riding a Rath when the intelligence reports suggested that the BJP could fall 50 seats short of its last Lok Sabha tally. "At once, the BJP forgot the development plank and returned to its old ways,'' he remarked and asserted that the "theatrics'' would not sustain the public interest for long.

The Milli Council -- which had recently given a call to the secular forces to close ranks and defeat the BJP while releasing a white paper on the performance of the National Democratic Alliance Government -- reiterated that an alliance of secular parties alone could save the country from the impending danger of the BJP-led coalition coming back to power."

Wherever there is a scope for tactical voting, we will urge the saner sections of voters to exercise it to defeat the BJP candidates,'' Dr. Alam said, while pointing out that the Congress and its allies were in a comfortable position in Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

As regards Uttar Pradesh, the secular camp seems to be divided because of the failure of Congress and Samajwadi Party to come to an understanding. "Our emphasis in Uttar Pradesh will be on the factors such as capacity to win and credibility while choosing from among the candidates pitted against the BJP in each constituency,'' he added.

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