The L K Advani Chat
L K Advani, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, despite some flak, was the voice of reason, pointing out that his party was more interested in improving the country's infrastructure than in pushing religious issues as claimed by its rivals. As always, a fascinating transcript.
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:30 IST)
This is L K Advani talking to all of you who are on the chat show organised by Rediff On The NeT. Today is 15th August 1997, a very special day for India and Indians. 50 years back India became free after centuries of slavery. Ordinarily this occasion of golden jubilee of Indian Independence would have been an occasion for unmixed joy. As it is, it is a jubilee no doubt but there is not very much of jubilation.
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:30 IST)
Welcome greetings to all of you both in India as well as Indians settled abroad.
swapna (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:18 IST)
Advaniji, What is the country coming to ? With Rabri Devi as chief minister what can one hope for?
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:37 IST)
swapna: Developments in Bihar have been distressing no doubt. But the kind of anger I notice among people against Rabri Devi is somewhat misplaced. Anger against Laloo Prasad Yadav would be perfectly legitimate. It is he who after being caught with his hand in the till and so ousted from office as tried to retain his grip on the govt thru' a proxy chief minister. As one could see when Rabri assumed office she was only a reluctant instrument. but what should be of concern to all democrats is the fact that most political parties in India try to take advantage of the feudal streak in our population to promote hereditary succession in politics. After all is there any essential difference between what Laloo has tried to do thru' Rabri and the Congress president is trying to do through Sonia?
Nivedita Dwivedi (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:27 IST)
Mr Advani, are you happy with the achievements of India on its 50th anniversary?
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:42 IST)
Nivedita: That even after 50 years of independence we have nearly half the population of the country living below the poverty line. And over 200 thousand out of the 600 thousand villages in the country without proper drinking water are matters which are bound create a sense of disquiet. And the potential of this country in so far as material and human resources are concerned are so enormous that in 50 years India should have been among the front ranking countries of the world.
ravikc (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:41 IST)
Advaniji, Greetings and Jai Hind! Your yatra must have been veritably an emotional and learning experience. What did you learn from it? What does the country crave for?
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:48 IST)
ravikc: For me, the Swarna Jayanti Yatra was really an exhilarating experience. It was a 59-day yatra by road, covering 21 states of the country and a distance of 15,000 kms. The response in all states was uniformly stupendous! But in states like Kerala and West Bengal where the BJP does not have yet a strong presence it was even more than in the other parts. The concern everywhere was with roads, water, power, schools, hospitals, which means the country's infrastructure. It is my party's assessment that we have failed on this front mainly because the funds meant for development do not reach the people. Corruption is really the core problem.
HM (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:42 IST)
Mr. Advani , why is it so that only on day or a week before 50th Independence day , we are talking so much about it, expressing our worries. I feel it is a same scenario which occurs before general elections and all promises / party leaders then are not visible in public...?
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:53 IST)
HM: The fiftieth anniversary of independence is an occasion when, naturally, the media political parties and so even the common man are bound to do some stock taking. It is therefore that all these worries are being voiced. But what aggravates the situation is that the country has a government in New Delhi which is totally directionless and whose own members aren't sure how long the govt will last. It is this uncertainty which is thwarting the country's progress in all spheres.
Moin (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:48 IST)
Mr Advani: Why is that the third world countries leaders have no vision like Dr Mahatir Mohammad. Can you tell us what vision do you foresee for India. And how do you plan to bring a change in the common man's life????
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:4 IST)
Moin: In the yatra just completed the stress has been on a two-fold transformation. An honest upright leadership like that of Shri A B Vajpayee and a change in the mindset of the people. We feel that in these five decades of independence there has been a sharp decline in ethical values not only in politics and govt but in other spheres of life as well.
Raminder (Fri Aug 15 1997 6:53 IST)
Vande Mataram Advaniji.
On the Golden occasion of the Golden Jubilee. celebration of the India's independence day, Let us wish each other by "VANDE MA TARAM". "Hi/Hello ,......" ke liye to Mahinon pare hain but these two GOLDEN days (14th N 15th August 97) will never come back.
VANDE MATARAM, Rami.
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:6 IST)
Raminder: A very, very warm VANDE MATARAM to you. For all those who witnessed yesterday's midnight session in the Central Hall of Indian Parliament it was gratifying to observe that Vande Mataram both the song as well as the greeting had once again acquired the same kind of importance it had before 1947.
Indian (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:3 IST)
Then if we are in agreement, why does a party with so many intellectuals -- at least in the top positions. I cannot vouch for the grassroot-level workers or CMs of the state; they seem to be no different from the corrupt Cong-I or the rustic JD - have to take resort highlighting things like "Hindutva", "Ram Rajya", instead of focussing on basic things like power (not power politics), good roads, basic infrastructure etc (Although its there on its agenda, its not focussed upon properly. Why so?
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:13 IST)
Indian: If you were to go thru the BJP manifesto you would find that a very earnest attempt has been made to spell out the party's policies in all the spheres you have talked about. Power, drinking, water, electricity, health, education... All these are concerns which BJP keeps very much in mind. Our state govt's in fact have been concentrating more and more on health and education. But whether it was before 1947 or whether it is today the ideological approach of any party plays a major role in drawing the people towards it. The phrase Ram Raj was first used by used by Gandhiji. In India Ram Rajya simply means an ideal kingdom. Also I wish it was realised that if India today is a secular country in which all citizens are equal it is principally because it is a Hindu dominant country. Otherwise, in the circumstances in which India got freedom, India, like Pakistan, may also have become a theocracy.
Hindustani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:5 IST)
Advaniji, What is liberalisation per BJP norms. This is BJP related question. I hope to get a response
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:19 IST)
Hindustani: The BJP is all in favour of dismantling the license permit quota Raj imposed on the country in the name of socialism. So we are all for internal liberalisation being pursued rapidly. But in so far globalisation is concerned we would like India to proceed cautiously. Foreign investment is favoured in the hi-tech areas and in the field of infrastructure. We would not like globalisation to add to our already serious problem of joblessness. Also in the last 50 years the indigenous industrial base that we have built up can be completely undermined by mindless globalisation.
LR (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:17 IST)
Mr LKA-What is your opinion on "DEMOCRACY DOES NOT MEAN INDISCIPLINE & CORRUPT POILITICIANS" & what is your opinion on whether we (Indians) deserve democracy?
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:23 IST)
LR: Indiscipline and corruption aren't maladies peculiar to a democracy. India is legitimately proud of being a democracy where there is a free press, an independent judiciary, a multi-party system yielding governments of different hues through regularly held free elections. the problems of corruption and indiscipline have to be tackled without in any way weakening the people's faith in democracy.
M (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:25 IST)
Mr Advani, could you not inspire people of Bengal with Vivekananda's ideals or by the creator of the RSS, Mr. Mukherjee??
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:34 IST)
M: West Bengal is the state which gave perhaps the most enthusiastic response to BJP's yatra this year. You have referred to Swami Vivekanand and S P Mukherjee (he founded the Jana Sangh and not the RSS), it is noteworthy that 15th August happens to be birth anniversary of yet another great son of Bengal, Shri Aurobindo Ghosh.
On 15th August 1947 Shri Aurobindo addressed the nation through the All India Radio. In that historic message he said, "August 15th is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era and the beginning of a new age. But it has significance not only for us but for Asia and the whole world, for it signifies the entry into the comity of nations of a new power with untold potentialities which has a great part to play in determining the political social and cultural and spiritual future of humanity."
Rajeev Kumar Saxena (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:33 IST)
Are you in favour in the Presidential system of Government like in USA?
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:38 IST)
Rajeev Kumar Saxena: The problems which the country faces today stem not so much from the system that we have as from the people who operate the system. One of the foremost advocates of the Presidential system has been Shri Nani Palkhiwala, and only today I saw in one of the special independence issues an article by him cautioning against adoption of the presidential system.
Imran (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:46 IST)
Ae meri jaane fazal, dekho bajpayeeji ki atal. I had asked Mr Advani one simple question: Would he or his party make any effort to win trust among the (disowned) Muslims in India, and HOW?
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:48 IST)
Imran: In the course of my Swarn Jayanti Yatra I had occasion to address the Muslim community. I emphasised BJP's unequivocal commitment to secularism as conceived by our constitution-makers which meant guarantee of security, justice, and equality to all citizens, irrespective of their faith and full freedom of faith and worship.
The BJP has come to centre stage of national politics and become an important party only in the last one decade. For the earlier 4 decades it was either the Congress party, the Janata Dal etc. who dominated the scene. Why is it that the Muslim community has not progressed as other sections of society have done? The BJP's view is that the Congress party and the other parties who describe us as anti-Muslim do so only because they are not really concerned with the welfare of the Muslim community but are interested only in votes.
For them secularism is only a euphemism for vote bank politics. I would urge my Muslim brethren to judge the BJP by our track record and not view us through the jaundiced eyes of our adversaries.
Rajeev (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:45 IST)
Advaniji, perhaps I would like to ask the same question as Hindustani and now Rakshan have asked. Why is it that an Indian cannot achieve in India as an Indian but can do the same in another country say the US as an Indian.
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:54 IST)
Rajeev : What Indians have achieved abroad only fortifies our confidence that given the right leadership and the right climate India is capable of reaching great heights. At the moment I would not deny both these factors are missing. It is my party's earnest endeavour to see that necessary correctives are applied.
L K Advani (Fri Aug 15 1997 7:57 IST)
I am extremely grateful to all those who have participated in this chat show and by posing perceptive questions sometimes even provocative questions given me considerable food for thought Vande Mataram and happy chatting !! Thank you ***GONE***
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