New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Get together’s “communalism” has “intensified” for the reason that time of L.Ok. Advani, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav informed ThePrint in an electronic mail interview Saturday, two days earlier than the scheduled consecration ceremony of the idol of Ram Lalla within the new Ayodhya temple devoted to the Hindu deity.
It was Yadav, who as then Bihar Chief Minister, had halted Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra in 1990 by getting the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) chief arrested in Bihar earlier than he may attain Ayodhya. Advani had launched into the yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya, to press for his get together’s demand for a temple on the disputed website the place the Babri Masjid had stood.
On Saturday, Yadav stated, “BJP’s communal nature has intensified since the ’90s. It was just starting at the time of Advani, now it is more intense.”
Nevertheless, requested who between Advani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was extra liable for the development of the Ram Temple, Yadav stated that based on him, there was no distinction between the 2.
“There is no one person who is more or less responsible. They are all equally responsible for the Babri demolition,” he stated. “For me, there is no difference between Modi and Advani— I have fought against all who have played divisive politics.”
A 42-year-old newly-elected chief minister who cast the Muslim-Yadav mixture within the aftermath of the 1989 Bhagalpur riots, Yadav had been instantly lapped up by the media because the poster-boy for secularism for standing as much as Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra.
As political alignments and realignments have modified over the many years, particularly in Bihar, Yadav has continued to retain his anti-BJP, secular stance. “I was against communalism in 1990, I continue to be the same. My political fight against communalism has not changed,” he stated.
Furthermore, he stays satisfied that the Ram Temple consecration in Ayodhya forward of this 12 months’s Lok Sabha elections could have no impact on the polls, and the joy round it shouldn’t be learn as a shift from India’s secular consensus. “It is simply communal politics. India is what it used to be. It [Ram Temple] will have no effect,” he stated.
He additionally firmly agrees with the Congress stand that the temple consecration is a BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affair, which has nothing to do with religion and religiosity, and clarified that Opposition demand for a nationwide caste census was not an election situation for these events.
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‘Nothing to do with Ram or faith’
“I completely agree with the Congress that this [Ram Mandir consecration] is a BJP-RSS affair. We are all Ram believers, but the temple consecration is purely political. It has nothing to do with Ram or faith. People will be able to see through it, it will have no effect,” stated the previous Bihar CM.
Requested if the Opposition is in a state of confusion as to how to answer BJP’s Hindutva politics, Yadav stated, “The confusion is only in the media. All secular parties are united, and the only way to fight is by staying united and fighting for the cause of the people.”
On the opposition’s caste survey situation not having traction within the meeting elections held in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in November, all three of which was gained by the BJP, Yadav stated that the caste survey is unconnected with elections.
Opposition events have been demanding a nationwide caste census since Bihar made the outcomes of a caste survey within the state public final 12 months.
“Our fight for social justice has continued since the Mandal [Commission, to identify the country’s backward classes], so the caste survey for us is not an election issue. Empowerment of people is not linked to any one or two elections, it is a long-term fight,” he stated.
Yadav added: “Our government in Bihar has given employment in lakhs. Nitish Kumar [Bihar CM] and Tejashwi Yadav [Lalu’s son and Bihar deputy CM] are doing a great job. But they are doing it to address the real issues of disparity and unemployment. Unlike the BJP, Nitish and Tejashwi are not seeking votes by playing with the emotion of the people.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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