POETIC LICENCE: No, Mr Putin
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_4-12-2002_pg3_7
Kaleem Omar
“Let’s fight it out face-to-face. We have fought thrice, let there be a fourth war,” said Advani, sounding like a South Asian version of George W. Bush. But then, this is the same Advani who instigated the Hindu mob that demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992
No, Mr Putin, contrary to the fears reportedly expressed by you in an interview to two Indian journalists at your Kremlin residence on Saturday on the eve of your visit to India, Pakistan is not in the business of supplying nukes to “bandits and terrorists,” or to anybody else for that matter.
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are meant solely for its own defence, and then, too, more as the deterrence of last resort against Indian military adventurism than by way of being weapons whose use would ever actually be contemplated. The same goes for India’s nuclear weapons. The two countries are not mad. They know only too well what the consequences of a nuclear war would be.
It is another matter that some loose-cannon Indian leaders sound quite mad sometimes. We saw this back in April 1998 when Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said, apropos of nothing, that China was India’s “Enemy No. 1” — a totally irresponsible statement to which Beijing rightly took strong exception. And we saw this again on Saturday (the same day as Mr Putin’s interview) when Indian Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani challenged Pakistan to another war over Kashmir.
“Let’s fight it out face-to-face. We have fought thrice, let there be a fourth war,” said Advani, sounding like a South Asian version of George W. Bush. But then, this is the same Advani who instigated the Hindu mob that demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992.
We have this on the authority of Advani’s own daughter-in-law, Gauri Advani, who alleged before India’s Liberhan Commission of Inquiry in January this year that her father-in-law had conspired with Bharitya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinay Katiyar to demolish the Babri Masjid.
Her allegation came while Advani, a BJP hardliner, was in Washington for talks with Bush administration officials about the India-Pakistan military standoff, a crisis triggered by India last December when it moved several hundred thousand troops to frontline positions on its border with Pakistan.
In a 10-page application filed before the Liberhan Commission on January 12, 2002, Gauri claimed she was present at a meeting between Advani and Katiyar in Varanasi on December 1, 1992 when they discussed plans for the Babri demolition.
In her application, Gauri, a lawyer by profession and now a practicing solicitor in London, decried Advani’s statement before the commission that he was “anguished by the Babri demolition” and had “nothing to do with it.” She said his statement was nothing but a bundle of lies based upon concocted and false facts.
Gauri, who married Advani’s son, Jayant, in October 1991, was Advani’s special assistant from November 1989 till her marriage to Jayant.
Gauri said, in her application before the Liberhan Commission, that as Advani’s special assistant, she had looked after his New Delhi constituency from where he contested and won election to the Lok Sabha, the Indian Lower House of Parliament. Gauri said that at that time, she had “deep faith” in the ideology that Advani used to propagate, and believed whatever he told her as being “the gospel truth.”
Gauri pointed out that on or around November 28, 1991 (a year before the demolition of the Babri Masjid) an application was moved in the Indian Supreme Court seeking permission to carry out a symbolic “kar seva” in Ayodhya, the site of the Babri Masjid.
The application was still pending a year later when Advani, anticipating favourable orders from the Court, decided to start another “rath yatra” from Varanasi to mobilise “kar sevaks,” Gauri said. She said that she and Advani’s wife, Kamala, accompanied Advani to Lucknow on the morning of November 30, 1992, en route to Varanasi by the North East Express train from Delhi.
Gauri said: “Before the start of the rath yatra (on December 1, 1992), Shri Vinay Katiyar came to meet Shri L. K. Advani. The applicant (Gauri) was also present in this meeting. It was in this meeting that Shri L. K. Advani and Shri Vinay Katiyar, in the presence of the applicant, conspired to demolish the Babri Masjid. Shri L. K. Advani told Shri Vinay Katiyar that the ultimate aim of the rath yatra is not only to do kar seva and appease Hindu sentiment but also to garner votes and come to power at the Centre.”
In her application, Gauri alleged that Advani told Katiyar that “the movement to build the Ram temple” at the site of the Babri Masjid had “to be taken to its logical end, that is, coming to power at the Centre,” and that this would “not be possible without demolishing the Babri Masjid” as only that would “unite the Hindu vote bank in favour of the BJP.”
Gauri added: “The applicant (Gauri) remembers that Shri L. K. Advani said, ‘Kya Babri Masjid ka kalank nahin mit sakta?’ Shri Vinay Katiyar looked at the applicant and then said to Shri L. K. Advani, ‘Hum to aapke aadesh ka itizar kar rahen hain aur agar aap bole to masjid ka namo-nishan mita de.’ Shri L. K. Advani at that time smiled and then said, ‘To intizaar kis bat ka? Kaam kar do’.”
Gauri said she was not surprised at Advani’s venomous outpourings as “even at home, Advani family members used to say that the kar seva in Ayodhya would not remain restricted to bhajan or kirtan.” She said: “It was the common refrain during discussions at home that the BJP could only come to power by playing the religion card.”
Gauri said that when Advani came home after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, she had asked him what had happened. She said he exulted and replied: “Jo karne gaye the, wok kar aye.” She said that Advani “expressed his happiness over the demolition.”
This is the man that Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has chosen to make his Deputy Prime Minister. There can be no more telling comment on the sorry state of the BJP’s Hindutva brand of politics.
In her application before the Liberhan Commission of Inquiry on January 12, 2002, Advani’s daughter-in-law, Gauri Advani, said: “L. K. Advani told Vinay Katiyar (at their meeting on December 1, 1992) that the right opportunity to demolish the the Babri Masjid had come, and that since a large number of kar sevaks would be congregating in Ayodhya for kar seva, the demolition could easily be done.”
:biggthumb