Partition the first Congress derailment: BJP

Dehradun, Sep 7: Grudgingly conceding that the Congress and independence struggle had become 'synonymous', the BJP today said that partition of the country was the first derailment of Congress which had vowed not to allow the division of the country at any cost.

In a booklet titled 'Vande Mataram' released at the function organised to sing the national song ahead of the National Executive, the BJP said that when the nation was fighting the British, the Indian National Congress which was leading the national struggle had 'no colour'. Thousands and lakhs of people thronged in the support of the national cause at the call of Mahatma Gandhi. Those who had made supreme sacrifices including personalities like Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were not Congressmen.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who waged a war against the British though was a Congressman had left that party but sacrificed his life for the freedom of the country.

The first derailment from its avowed objective of nationalism occured when Congress leaders who had declared not to allow the country to be divided at all costs surrendered to the 'communal pressure' of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the purely communal Muslim League. "They meekly surrendered to Jinnah", the booklet said.

Mahatma Gandhi declared that Pakistan would be built over his body but so infatuated were the Congress leaders by the beauty of power, that they refused to wait any longer for consummating their marriage with power. "It was the first instance when the Congress timidly surrendered before communalism. The Congress had then made the mighty spirit of nationalism to lay prostrate before the threat of Muslim League. It was the first compromise of Congress and because of this folly, India did not win her freedom", Mr Prakash Jha, the editor of the BJP lamented in his editorial.

India, the party said, was made to purchase freedom at a high price of a bloody partition of the motherland playing into the hands of the communalists. The mighty nation had to kneel before the forces of communalism and over one million people were butchered and lakhs were rendered homeless and penniless. It took decades for these displaced family members to get themselves rehabilitated, the BJP said.

Those engaged in the struggle may or may not have been Congressmen, yet they were all inspired by the spirit of nationalism. In the initial stage, they had become synonymous with the fight with the British forces and the leadership too did not make a distinction between a Congressman or a non-Congressman as long as they were fighting for the cause. There was also no effort to claim 'credit or reward' unlike the present time Congress where individuals vied for personal benefits, the BJP observed.

Terming the inability of the several successive governments in enforcing Article 44 providing for uniform civil code as the 'first blunder of Congress', the party regretted that a 'temporary' provision in Article 370 in the Constitution according special status to Jammu and Kashmir had become a permanent feature thanks to dilly-dally policy of successive Congress governments. This failure, the BJP said was deliberate and in pursuance of the Congress agenda to appease the minorities, the party alleged.

The Congress governments, the BJP said, forgot that it was the duty of every government to protect and honour every citizen of the country irrespective of caste, creed and gender. "There is nothing that a minority needs and a majority does not. It is a folly to presume that a majority community never needs protection who often were the victims of orgy of communal violence. When Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister, he had overturned the verdict of the Apex Court just bowing to the fundamentalist forces of the minority community.''

Even after the Supreme Court had dubbed the Illegal Migrants Detection by Tribunal Act as ultra vires of the Constitution, because of the Assembly elections in Asom, the UPA government had refused to act on the directions of the Court as it wanted to subsist on the support of 'illegal Bangladeshi immigrants', the party alleged.

Turning to opposition to join the singing of the national song from the Muslim clergy, the party said many nationalist Muslim leaders and intellectuals had come out openly to denounce the clerics to say that that it was not a religious song and its singing does not offend Islam in any way. No religion can forbid a son to touch the feet of his father or mother as a show of respect. "The National Flag and National Song are much much higher in esteem than any other individual or institution", the party said.

UNI

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