Advani revives temple card in West Bengal

Kolkata, May 9: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani here Friday reiterated his party's resolve to build a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya."Jai Sriram' will be fruitful only when we will build a Ram Mandir in Ayadhya," Advani told an election rally here.

He said: "A coalition government has its limitations. If we come to power, we will have to take the coalition into confidence. (But) A day will come when both the Hindus and Muslims will say together that the Ram Mandir must be built."

Slamming the Left parties and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre, Advani said: "The 2004 alliance between the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was totally opportunistic. It was based upon simply a negative consideration that the BJP be kept out." "Now the Congress and the CPI-M will have to bear the wages of opportunism."

The CPI-M-led Left parties had provided crucial support to the UPA government for four years since 2004. They withdrew support in July 2008, protesting against the India-US civil nuclear deal. Advani launched a website of his party's candidate Tathagata Roy, who is contesting from Kolkata North constituency.

Advani said there would be neither a Third Front government nor a Fourth Front regime at the centre. "The reality of Indian politics now is the country could only be ruled by either a Congress-led or a BJP-led government. And all the other small parties will join these two leagues," he said.

Advani was, however, silent on the former alliance partner Trinamool Congress, which has now switched its allegiance to the Congress camp. Criticising the central government for "non-performance", he said, "This is the only government since 1952 which has done nothing in its five-year rule. Its record is completely blank."

Advani silent on Mamata during poll campaign in West Bengal

Kolkata (PTI): Perhaps keeping an eye on the post-poll equation, BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani on Wednesday refrained from using harsh words against former ally Trinamool Congress' alliance with Congress and said it is upto TC to decide whether it wanted to rejoin NDA or stay with its new partner.

Mr. Advani, who addressed three election meetings in West Bengal during the day, remained silent on Trinamool Congress although state BJP leaders criticised TC chief Mamata Banerjee for joining hands with the Congress. Earlier, speaking to reporters at the N S C Bose International airport here, Mr. Advani said TC has to decide whether it wanted to rejoin the NDA or stay with the Congress.

"Mamata has to decide whether she wants to join the NDA or stay with the Congress. It was she who decided to leave the NDA and have a tie-up with the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal," he said. "But one thing is sure, that the BJP is as anti-CPI(M) as the Trinamool Congress," he said.

Stating that the NDA was a pre-poll alliance, he dubbed the UPA as "opportunist". Mr. Advani said despite Biju Janata Dal walking out of NDA, Om Prakash Chautala's INLD, Ajit Singh's Lok Dal and Asom Gana Parishad have joined the alliance.

Rahul remarks an insult to West Bengal’

People continue to repose faith in the Left: Yechury

NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury on Saturday said Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the Left Front government in West Bengal amounted to “insulting the people of Bengal.”

“Rajiv Gandhi had once said Kolkata was a dying city. And you remember what happened after that. Now, his son is echoing similar things about Bengal,” Mr. Yechury told journalists when asked to respond to Mr. Gandhi’s charge that the situation in West Bengal was worse than what was in Uttar Pradesh. “Why are the people continuing to repose faith in the Left? If you say they are doing so for the wrong reasons, then it is tantamount to insulting the people of Bengal,” he added.

The CPI(M) leader drew attention to a study, commissioned under Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, which ranked West Bengal among the top three States. The World Bank too had reported a decline in the below-the-poverty line-level population in the State.

“You too won’t agree that Ahluwalia is a Left spokesman or the World Bank a Left body,” he observed while warning that the Left parties too could reveal worse social indicators in Congress-ruled states.

Conceding that anyone could voice his opinion and Mr. Gandhi was no exception, Mr. Yechury pointed out that the fact that the people of West Bengal had elected the Left Front seven times in a row “merits a re-thinking” among those criticising the government.

The Election Commission had in the past conceded the demand of the Opposition parties by inducting security forces in large numbers from outside the State and staggering the elections in five phases but the result was the same.

“I had then told the Election Commission jokingly that so long as you don’t bring in voters from outside, you can’t fight the Left in Bengal,” he said while pointing out that the Left Front had then won two-thirds of the seats.

On Mr. Gandhi’s remark that West Bengal had failed to properly implement the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in some districts, Mr. Yechury blamed the Centre for not responding to the Left Front government’s plea to effect some changes in the utilisation of funds due to the State’s unique climatic conditions. The senior CPI(M) leader said the Bharatiya Janata Party leader L. K. Advani’s political standing would be at stake if he accepted the clean chit given by the former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, K. S. Sudarshan, regarding his role in Babri Masjid demolition. Mr. Yechury felt it was inconceivable that people would believe in the clean chit given by Mr. Sudarshan or accepted by Mr. Advani.

JYOTI BASU NAILS ADVANI’S ‘COVERT’OUS REMARKS

KOLKATA: Senior CPI (M) leader Jyoti Basu rebutted on 30 March BJP supremo Lalkrishna Advani’s remark to a news agency that he had met Jyoti Basu ‘covertly’ prior to the so-called ‘rathayatra’ that claimed the lives of hundreds across its bloody path. Jyoti Basu admitted to the meting quite freely and said that the meeting was overt rather than covert.

Jyoti Basu previously had a word with the CPI (M) Polit Bureau and with the then general secretary comrade EMS before proceeding to meet Advani. The then Prime Minister V P Singh, too, had earlier prevailed upon Basu to speak to Advani towards dissuading the BJP leader from the ‘rathayatra’.

In the exchanges that followed between Basu and Advani, Basu told the latter that the purported ‘rathayatra’ would create disharmony and even rioting. Advani would not listen to Basu’s advice that he aborts the ‘programme.’

Later, Basu also met A B Vajpayee and asked him to prevent the ‘rathayatra’ but nothing came out of this meeting, too. Basu added to say when the late PV Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister Basu along with comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet had telephoned him to initiate measures so that the Babari Masjid was not pulled down. The late Rao promised to do ‘something’ about the issue but in practice did nothing.

Incidentally Jyoti Basu recalled that when as Prime Minister A B Vajpayee came to Kolkata and met Basu he asked the Bengal chief minister as to the reasons why he, Basu, called the BJP a party that was ‘uncivilized and barbaric.’ Basu had replied that he said this because BJP was engaged in orchestrating riots in Gujarat, killing members of the minority communities with impunity, and that it had pulled down the Babari Masjid, causing riots to break out. After this strong repartee, Vajpayee had held his silence.