Lok
Sabha
Elections
2004
Campaign Booklets
Given
the
magnitude
of
the
Gujarat
genocide
we
seem
forget
that
there
have
been
a
series
of
pogroms
and
hate
campaigns
against
the
minorities
throughout
the
tenure
of
the
Vajpayee
Govt.
These
have
been
intrinsic
to
the
BJP’s
strategy
of
mobilisation
for
a
right
wing
fascist
concept
of
the
State,
signified
in
the
idea
of
the
Hindu
Rashtra.
The
BJP
rule
at
the
Centre
began
with
a
series
of
attacks
all
over
the
country
on
Muslims
and
Christians.
Throughout
1998
and
1999
local
land
issues,
an
inter-religious
marriage,
an
old
religious
structure
--
anything
was
transformed
into
a
hate
filled
campaign.
In
Gujarat,
the
‘Model
State’
of
the
proposed
Hindu
Rashtra,
Muslims
were
driven
out
of
their
villages
by
the
VHP
and
the
Bajrang
Dal
and
placards
proclaimed:
“You
have
now
entered
Hindu
Rashtra”.
There
were
organised
killings
in
many
villages
and
living
in
Gujarat
state
became
a
virtual
encounter
with
death
for
many
families
even
before
the
genocide
of
2002.
In
the
run
up
to
December
6,
2000,
there
were
door
to
door
campaigns
and
people
were
witness
to
a
heightened
rhetoric
on
the
Ram
temple
and
on
the
rights
of
Hindus
in
this
country.
Minorities
were
forced
to
hear
speeches
of
hatred
and
to
hear
humiliating
sermons
of
how
they
must
adopt
the
Indian
culture.
The
door-to-door
campaign
was
timed
with
Ramzan
and
Christmas,
and
culminated
in
Vajpayee
announcing
that
the
temple
was
a
matter
of
national
sentiment
and
an
unfinished
task
that
must
be
completed.
Violence
against
Muslims
and
Christians
followed
in
almost
all
the
states
on
the
pretext
that
people
of
these
religions
had
‘foreign
affiliations’.
In
2001
the
attacks
on
the
minorities
peaked
in
the
run
up
to
the
state
elections
in
UP.
There
were
attacks
on
Christians
in
Himachal
Pradesh,
Uttar
Pradesh,
Maharashtra,
Orissa,
Gujarat,
Rajasthan
and
Madhya
Pradesh. A
500-year
old
Kalandari
mosque
at
Asind
near
Bhilwara
in
Rajasthan
was
destroyed
and
‘converted’
into
a
'temple'
by
placing
a
statue
of
Hanuman.
Again
in
Rajasthan,
in
Pander
town,
the
Sunni
Jama
Masjid
was
attacked
and
the
cupboard
containing
copies
of
the
Quran
Sharif
deliberately
set
on
fire.
On
July
19
two
mazaars
were
damaged
in
Jahazpur.
There
was
tension
in
many
districts
of
Rajasthan
as
a
result
of
the
sangh
parivar's
aggressive
propaganda,
including
in
Ajmer
town,
where
the
dargah
has
served
to
retain
amity.
Year
2002
saw
organised
killings
of
Muslims
in
Gujarat
with
the
active
connivance
of
the
BJP
state
machinery
and
the
state's
Chief
Minister.
More
than
two
thousand
people
were
killed
and
more
than
2
lakhs
rendered
homeless.
Even
today,
thousands
remain
without
means
of
livelihood
while
the
guilty
roam
about
free
and
fearless.
The
VHP
and
Bajrang
Dal
continue
to
threaten
and
intimidate
the
Muslims.
On
a
small
scale
such
violence
has
continued
through
out
the
country
in
2003.
In
2004
as
we
begin
the
new
year,
there
have
been
attempts
by
the
BJP
Govts.
to
instigate
violence
in
Madhya
Pradesh
and
Rajasthan.
After
a
church
was
vandalised
and
Christian
tribals
attacked
in
Jhabua,
the
Uma
Bharti
provided
wrong
information
to
the
press,
and
virtually
sanctioned
the
violence
there.
In
Ujjain,
two
police
officers
who
tried
to
prevent
violence
from
spreading
were
transferred
on
a
complaint
from
the
VHP.
These
are
not
isolated
incidents,
and
the
above
is
by
no
means
a
complete
account
of
such
incidents.
intimidation,
threats
and
curtaillment
of
minority
rights
has
been
routine
and
no
festival
goes
by
without
the
Bajrang
Dal
goons
creating
an
atmosphere
of
violence
and
terror
for
the
minorities.
In
not
a
single
incident
have
the
guilty
been
brought
to
book.
Arms Training
Arms
training
being
given
to
thousands
of
Bajrang
Dal
‘volunteers’
all
over
North
India
and
the
poisonous
propaganda
being
unleashed
through
them
are
illegal
and
unconstitutional
acts.
Creation
of
private
armies
is
unconstitutional.
The
Bajrang
Dal
openly
declares
that
it
has
made
it
its
business
to
deal
with
‘internal’
enemies;
to
identify
them
at
its
own
initiative
and
to
mete
out
its
own
private
vendetta
as
‘punishment’.
Never
in
the
history
of
independent
India
has
a
government
and
the
Home
Minister
behaved
with
such
open
partisanship
and
such
open
political
cynicism.
The
Home
Ministrty
has
declared
a
virtual
war
against
the
minorities
in
the
name
of
fighting
the
ISI
and
given
full
freedom
to
the
Sangh
Parivar
storm
troopers
to
decide
who
these
ISI
linked
individuals
or
groups
are.
Soon
after
assuming
power,
the
BJP
declared
that
the
temple
issue
is
very
much
alive.
For
the
BJP,
it
is
important
to
keep
the
issue
of
the
Ram
temple
alive,
in
order
keep
the
religious
people
of
both
communities
preoccupied
with
the
idea
of
Ram
mandir.
Three
key
accused
in
the
conspiracy
leading
to
the
demolition
of
the
Babri
Masjid
--
Vinay
Katiyar,
Kalyan
Singh
and
Uma
Bharati
have
been
rewareded
with
plum
posts.
Clearly,
if
the
BJP
is
voted
back
to
power
we
shall
have
Modis
heading
the
BJP
in
each
state.
VHP
leaders
keep
on
denying
that
they
would
abide
by
the
court’s
verdict.
The
attacks
on
secular
intellectuals
and
secular-democratic
cultural
expression
have
paralleled
the
attacks
on
minorities.
Film
personalities
like
Deepa
Mehta,
artists
like
MF
Hussain,
theatre
persons
like
Habib
Tanvir,
and
historians
like
Irfan
Habib,
Romila
Thapar,
KN
Panikkar
and
DN
Jha
have
been
continuously
the
targets
of
vilification
campaigns.
Performances
have
been
routinely
disrupted;
cultural
organisations
have
been
taken
over
by
placing
RSS
linked
persons
incharge
of
them.
The
BJP-led
government
has
played
havoc
with
the
educational
system.
It
has
converted
almost
every
educational
and
academic
body
at
the
national
level
into
an
instrument
for
implementing
the
communal
agenda
of
the
Sangh
Parivar.
A
sustained
attack
has
been
mounted
on
reason
and
rationality
as
the
basis
of
knowledge
in
educational
institutions.
This
is
evident
from
the
academic
schedules,
the
subject
matter
of
seminars
and
syposiums,
the
research
projects
initiated,
and
the
output
in
terms
of
publications
and
reports.
Courses
on
astrology
and
karmakand
have
been
introduced
at
the
university
level.
At
the
school
level,
science
textbooks
for
government
schools
have
been
rewritten
in
the
states
ruled
by
the
BJP
to
suit
their
long-term
design
of
undermining
the
secular
state
and
the
pluralistic
traditions
of
the
country.
More
than
20,000
Vidya
Bharti
schools
and
shishu
mandirs
--
where
inculcation
of
hatred
against
the
minorities
is
a
declared
policy,
and
textbooks
poison
young
minds
with
regard
to
religion
and
caste
differences
--
today
receive
not
merely
approval
but
state
patronage.
The
texts
intoduced
by
the
schools
in
BJP
ruled
states
devalue
women's
role
in
society,
and
only
represent
them
as
homemakers
and
upholders
of
"family
values"
The
BJP
led
government
has
encouraged
attacks
on
women’s
movements
for
emancipation.
Storm
troopers
of
the
Saffron
Brigade
are
forcing
women
in
Gujarat
and
Jharkhand
to
use
the
mangal
sutra
and
the
sindoor
as
symbols
of
marriage.
Backward
values
like
untouchability,
suppression
of
property
rights
and
access
to
family
income,
sati
pratha,
gunghat,
are
being
forced
on
women.
During
the
Gujarat
genocide
in
2002,
hundreds
of
women
were
raped
and
burnt
alive,
with
the
connivance
of
the
women’s
fronts
of
the
Sangh
Parivar.
Recently,
under
the
leadership
of
the
woman
BJP
Chief
Minister
of
Rajasthan,
those
accused
of
the
burning
of
Roop
Kanwar
in
the
famous
sati
case
have
been
let
off.
Announcing
its
Real
Agenda
In
the
run
up
to
the
elections,
the
BJP
has
virtually
announced
its
real
agenda.
It
is
putting
its
signature
on
one
document
as
part
of
the
NDA’s
common
programme,
and
at
the
same
time
is
issuing
another
document
which
it
calls
its
“vision”
document.
Notwithstanding
the
NDA's
common
programme,
through
the
vision
document
the
BJP
reserves
for
itself
the
right
to
subvert
its
own
election
manifesto!
It
has
one
document
to
give
to
the
people
of
India,
and
another
to
the
RSS,
which
incorporates
the
uniform
civil
code,
the
Ram
mandir
in
Ayodhya,
the
abrogation
of
Article
370
that
protects
the
rights
of
the
Kashmiris,
and
so
on.
Threat
to
National
Unity
India
is
a
multi-lingual,
multi-religious
nation
with
a
pluralistic
cultural
fabric
--
a
nation
that
thrives
as
much
on
diversity
as
it
does
on
unity.
The
people
of
this
country
are
distinct
from
one
another
at
one
level,
but
also
united
at
another
level.
They
are
united
on
the
basis
of
an
acceptance
of
diversity
and
on
the
basis
of
a
constitutional
guarantee
of
their
diverse
languages,
cultures
and
religions.
It
will
break
up
if
the
BJP
is
allowed
to
have
its
way.
It
must
be
understood
that
a
BJP
government
in
power
with
a
clear
majority
can
virtually
result
in
the
transformation
of
the
secular
republic
of
India
into
a
Hindu
Rashtra.
What
does
a
victory
for
the
BJP
in
the
coming
elections
portend
for
the
future?
It
can
result
in
large
sections
of
minorities
and
members
of
the
lower
castes
becoming
second
class
citizens
with
no
citizenship
rights.
It
can
mean
a
country
where
artists
and
intellectuals
are
constantly
under
siege,
where
the
rights
of
the
working
people
are
eliminated,
where
women’s
equality
is
no
longer
a
right.
The
BJP
talks
in
the
name
of
the
nation
and
in
the
language
of
nationalism
but
virtually
excludes
the
majority
of
Indians
from
its
concept
of
the
nation.
It
talks
of
majorities
while
its
policies
benefit
a
miniscule
minority.
It
today
holds
to
ransom
the
entire
nation.
If
we
do
not
want
such
forces
to
make
further
headway
in
India,
the
time
has
come
to
issue
them
a
challenge.
They
must
be
defeated
in
these
elections
by
the
people
of
India.