I am happy to know Organiser is bringing out a special supplement on Karnataka Government. And incidentally the party'snational executive is also going on in Bengaluru. I also congratulate Shri BS Yeddyurappa, the Chief Minister of Karnataka for successfully completing 100-days in office with new developmental initiatives for the state. I also thank the people of Karnataka for reposing their faith in BJP and we are determined that we would provide a responsive government.
It is my firm belief that as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo and Swami Vivekananda, India is destined to emerge as the economic powerhouse, military superpower, and knowledge hub of this century. And with the BJP at the helm of affairs steering our country towards achieving this glorious vision, I firmly believe that India will once again be acknowledged as the ?Vishwa Guru? – an inclusive superpower that embodies and actualise the immortal ideal of ?Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam? (the world is a family). This is the very ideal that motivated Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and Pt Deendayal Upadhyay to found our organisation which has today, over the last six decades, emerged as the pre-eminent political party of the land.
Having started my career as a volunteer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, afterwards I became political activist by taking the responsibility of Mirzapur (U.P.) district president of Bharatiya Jansangh. I then became a district coordinator during the JP movement before joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, the new avatar of Jansangh. I never expected that one day I would rise to this position, but such a reality is possible only within the BJP where even an ordinary ?karyakarta? can rise to head the party as its National President. This sybolises true democracy within the party.
Given our ideological and nationalist credentials, it was only apt that a BJP-led Government would lead the country'smarch into the 21st century. The National Democratic Alliance Government'sachievements during a relatively short period of six years were indeed stupendous, and the country even today rides high on the achievements of the Vajpayee government. However, it is unfortunate that the successful legacy of the Vajpayee led NDA government is now getting eroded in light of the continuing apathy of the Congress led UPA government at the centre, which is literally turning a blind eye towards various issues of critical national importance. For instance, the present government continues to inexplicably ignore the unprecedented rise in farmer suicides and the continuing crisis in the farm sector despite ?Bharat? living in the farms and chaupals of the country.
Being a kisan, I find it particularly painful to witness the country'sagrarian crisis and the government'sapparent disinterest towards solving it. As Union Agriculture Minister, I took the initiative to bring down the interest rates on agriculture loans and by blessing of our then PM Shri AB Vajpayee, I succeeded in changing it from a whopping 14-19 per cent to a more affordable 8-9 per cent. In my opinion, the Gaon, Garib & kisan (Village, Poor & Farmer) must be made the prime centre of the government'splanning process. While on the one hand, a services sector led growth trajectory is appreciable, but on the other hand, how can the farm sector in the vast Indo-Gangetic plain, (the biggest, the most fertile and the most densily populated plain of the world) can be kept out of this growth model?
Unfortunately, under the Congress led UPA government, it is not the farmer alone whose distressed are over burdened. During the past three years, various national, cultural, and religious centres have been attacked by terrorists with impunity and the only response that the Congress has been able to conjure up is to literally communalise our war on terror. The Afzal issue is a clear and unambiguous indicator of this Government'swarped sense of nationalism. Today India is probably the only country in the world that is waging a war on terror without any effective anti-terror law in place to deal with the situation.
The BJP is not merely worried about the internal, external and economic security situation of the country. In my opinion, our civilisational moorings must form the bedrock of our growth model, and indeed, of our very existence. But today we are being administered by a government that is not only incapable of thwarting the terrorist attacks and some sort of cultural invasion coming as a negative by product of globalisation, rather than it strikes at the very core of our nationalism and cultural beliefs. As a child, I recall my mother noticing my fascination for Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman, our household deity. And as countless other fellow countrymen across the country, I grew up as a devout, proud Indian who regarded Lord Rama as the ?Maryada Puroshottam?. Today, the Congress and its allies are pouring scorn on our civilizational heritage as well as on the personal faith of millions across the country. The Congress-led UPA government has actually done the unimaginable – it has questioned the very existence of Lord Rama in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court!. Even the foreign rulers in the entire history of India had never dared to say this which this government of ours in indipendent India said on record.
In a single stroke, they want to not only destroy our core beliefs but also demolish everything that Mahatma Gandhi righteously stood for. Gandhiji'spolitical vision was ?Ram Rajya?, spiritual vision ?Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram? and his last words were ?Hey Ram?. The Congress today says all this is sham. I am of the firm belief that the Congress, the self-styled heir of Gandhian legacy, is incapable of not only actualising but even visualising the Gandian vision. And on the contrary, if there is one single organisation that is truly upholding all the Gandhian principles, of Swadeshi, Gram Swarajya and Ram Rajya, it is only the RSS, which is blamed by Congress for killing Gandhi.
Sri Amarnath Yatra controvercy created by a handful of separatist is another example of attack on the basic elements of nationalism. Amarnath Yatra is the only event by which the interior parts of Kashmir valley gets emotionally connected with rest of the country. So, this yatra is not only religious but also a tool of national integration. Strengthening of the prospects of yatra is strengthening of Nationalism.
For any party or person to lead India to its glorious future must be capable of understanding the true nature and ethos of country. The true nature is imbibed in Bharat not in India. From all the spiritual, religious, cultural traditions and strong family values to the neo scientific concepts of Ayurveda, herbal medication, yoga, naturopathy, organic farming and environment friendliness to even pure mathematical concepts of Vedic mathematics are some facets of origianl Bharat. In the early 1990?s, I was strongly criticised for introducing Vedic Mathematics in Uttar Pradesh as the Education Minister. However today, the west is raving about Vedic Mathematics and accepting it in a big way.
Bharat is having an enormous potential to contribute to humanity. But these potentials can only usher if we are having confidence in our original strengths. We must come out of western dogma and explore our own treasure of Knowledge.
All that I am trying to say is that when various parts of the world struggle with problems ranging from deprivation and violence to ecological imbalances, only our ideology of Hindutva (The meaning of which is consistenly mis interpreted an perverted by so called secular intellectuals) can meaningfully show us all the way from conflict to coherence and even from health science to mathematics and guide us in the right direction.
The BJP will play the role of a catalyst to enable India to realise its actual position in the world. And I consider as a blessing of God, that I can today hope to be a part of this historical process.
(The writer is National President of BJP and can be contacted at 38, Ashoka Road, New Delhi.)
