Advani:Secular Tune

New Delhi, Nov. 22: L.K. Advani today played a “secular” card at a Church function, using the metaphor of the Resurrection of Christ to describe the Jan Sangh’s “rebirth” as the BJP.

His remarks come at a time the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is trying to prod the BJP back to its “ideological moorings” grounded in “cultural nationalism”.

The BJP is wondering if Advani, expected to step down as leader of the Lok Sabha Opposition in December, would repeat his 2005 act of delivering a parting shot.

While announcing his resignation as BJP president at the Chennai national executive that year, Advani had virtually told off the Sangh, saying the BJP often had to transcend its ideological straitjacket because it functioned in a multi-party democratic set-up.

At today’s Archdiocese of Delhi function, Advani recalled how the Jan Sangh was thrown out of the anti-Congress ruling coalition in 1979 because of the “dubious” dual membership issue.

The Jan Sangh had merged with the Janata Party to oppose Indira Gandhi during the Emergency, but some of its members continued to retain their Sangh affiliation, causing disquiet in the alliance.

“The expulsion took place on Good Friday, the day of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Hence, I said in my speech at the founding conference of the BJP, ‘It is not without significance that we were expelled from the Janata Party on the day of the Crucifixion of Christ’ and that we are experiencing our political rebirth in the form of the BJP on the day of the Resurrection of Christ,” Advani said.

He sought to counter the “motivated propaganda” about the BJP being anti-minority and anti-Christian with another example from the party’s history.

Advani said that after founding the Jan Sangh, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee had appointed V.K. John, his classmate and a barrister, as chief of the party unit in the erstwhile Madras province.

“The same propaganda was heard at that time. Barrister John was asked, ‘How can you, a Christian, accept to be an office-bearer of a communal party?’ His answer was forthright: ‘I know Dr Mookerjee very well. He cannot be the president of a communal party’.”

Advani underlined India’s diversities, at times almost appearing to be offering a counterpoint to the Sangh’s “one nation, one culture, one religion, one language” philosophy.

“We see diversity in faith, language, customs, appearances, in many things. India has enhanced these diversities, not out of circumstantial compulsion but due to its innate assimilative nature. India’s age-old civilisation has always displayed this unique quality of respecting its diversities, integrating them and making them a part of its unity. That integrating force is our national culture,” Advani said.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Sangh affiliate, today kicked off a signature campaign from Delhi’s temples to “save the cow” from “predatory butchers”.