'Communalism and Communal'- It's undoubtedly clear that these two words can never be interpreted as a riot between the two communities. It means two different groups of people having different opinions on a particular issue or principle.

IN INDIAN politics, the words 'Communalism and Communal' are being often used to 'cow down' an opponent party, particularly during Assembly or Lok Sabha elections. They interpret the word ‘Communal’ as a riot between two religious groups, especially between the Hindus and the Muslims. Some parties use this word to indulge in generating hatred between these communities, thereby resulting in loss of lives and properties.

But what ‘Communal’ really means? I do not know what linguistic Pandits may say but I can only say that the words ‘Communal’ or ‘Communalism’ never indicate so, if we go by the dictionary meaning. According to an English dictionary, the word "Communal” means a collective, communistic, community, general, joint, neighborhood and public, shared. On the other hand, according to a Bengali dictionary, it means ‘Sectarian’.

It is thus undoubtedly clear that these two words can never be interpreted as a riot between the two communities. It means two different groups of people having different opinions on a particular issue or principle or concept or religion or political belief, etc.

It may also mean that the disputes between the two sections of people in respect of cast, race, etc. A particular political party in West Bengal does not have the concept of co-existence with the group of people having ideas other than Marxism or Marxist and thus always fights to increase the number of Marxists, even at the cost of life and property.

The process of reducing the number of supporters and members of other than Left parties has been going on for years by the cadres of the Left parties aiming ultimately to win the elections. This is done involving all anti-social elements and the people with selfish interests.

The Left leaders are thus confidently wining all elections in West Bengal for the last five General Elections.

The civil servants are also following the same path for the fear of various harassments in their service life by their Minister bosses and party bosses from the district to block level in addition to MPs and MLAs.

Is it a civilised democratic state? In such a state no political party can win all five General Elections with a huge margin consecutively, unless it uses its physical and mental coercion on voters and supporters of other parties.

If any person, leader, or political party or any Government at the Centre follows the social concepts of about 82 per cent people of India and respects the principle of co-existence with the remaining 12 per cent + 6 per cent other people of the country, can it be called Communalism? If a traceable percentage of people of our country following an imported -ism (Marxism) which is totally not related to our Indianism and also our country's development, calls them (followers of Indian social concepts of 82 per cent people) Communal, is it not a hypocrisy of those Marxists or Leftists?

Time has come now for the people of our country to think and rethink who are Communals and what is 'Communalism' in the present political and social scenario of the country.

BHUBANESWAR/ANGUL/ROURKELA, April 2 : Ruling out any post-poll alliance with the BJD, BJP leader Mr LK Advani said that the regional party owed its decade-long survival to the BJP and yet it had betrayed the party and people of Orissa.

Dismissing the BJD charge that it had withdrawn from the alliance due to the “hidden communal agenda” pursued by the BJP, Mr Advani said that at no point of time during the 11 years and the series of seat-sharing talks had the BJD raised this issue.

"In fact he (Mr Naveen Patnaik) seemed to be predetermined to break the alliance and was only talking of five LS seats and 35 Assembly seats for the BJP knowing fully well that we will not accept it. We had seven sitting MPs and he was offering us five LS tickets," said Mr Advani at a Press conference here today.

The BJP leader and Prime Ministerial candidate went on to note that Mr Patnaik did not even speak to him. When some of our people requested him to talk to me, he refused, revealed Mr Advani, implicitly referring to the act of betrayal leading to a lack of moral courage to face or talk to him.

"No regional party in Orissa has survived beyond three to four years, the BJD did continue because it was wedded to a national party like the BJP," he pointed out.

The BJD will pay dearly for its miscalculation, misadventure arising out an exaggerated sense of its own strength, he said.

He appealed to voters to cast their vote and show their disapproval for the BJD’S great betrayal and also shatter the Congress party’s dreams in the state and at the Centre.

Addressing election meetings at Kuanrmunda and Kishorenagar Mr Advani called upon people to teach the BJD a lesson.

Giving tips on all inclusive development the PM candidate said: “No CM or PM or administrator can bring in change of development unless and until there is a good rapport between ruler and the ruled. As long as the raja and praja do not shake a hand the real development can never come because in a country like India the problems are big and complex”.

Earlier, Mr Juel Oram, MP who presided over the meeting alleged that the BJD, had become ‘PJD’ (obviously referring to Mr Pyari Mohan Mohapatra) and it has allotted the Sundergarh LS seat to the Left parties.

Mr Dilip Ray continuing to spew venom against Mr Patnaik said that he never visited Kalinganagar after his police had gunned down 14 tribals. He has displaced over thousand of tribals from Niyamgiri.

The BJP knows how to convert a crisis into an opportunity and grow. It has done many times in the past and recently it returned to power in Karnataka after the partner split the alliance, Mr Advani said.

BJP leaders Mr BB Harichandan, MP Rudra Narayan Pany and Dharmendra Pradhan, addressed the gathering at Kishorenagar.

Lucknow, March 19 : A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha candidate in Uttar Pradesh and 30 of her supporters have been arrested for defying the model code of conduct, police said Wednesday.

“A case has been registered against Neeam Sonkar and her supporters for taking out a procession Wednesday in Azamgarh district violating the code of conduct,” Superintendent of Police (City) O.P. Srivastava told IANS on phone. Sonkar is contesting elections from the Lalganj constituency.

Srivastava said Sonkar and her supporters carried out the procession in the Deogaon locality of Azamgarh without the permission of the police inspector under whose jurisdiction the area falls. They carried banners and buntings.

“Sonkar and her supporters raised anti-government slogans and also manhandled some of our officials who tried to stop their procession,” police inspector Ram Kripal Bharti told IANS.

According to police, a report pertaining to the violation of the model code of conduct by the BJP candidate and her supporters will be sent to the State Election Commission (SEC)

By Neena Vyas

Post-Assembly elections, the RSS influence over BJP could increase

It is believed that victory in M.P. and Chhattisgarh is due to better coordination

Top BJP leaders are scheduled to meet RSS general secretary

There is some talk of RSS strengthening its direct presence in BJP

NEW DELHI: With the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in two out of 6 Assembly elections, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is set to increase its influence over the party.

The issue is not settled as yet, but an influential section of the party leadership believes that the BJP was able to perform well in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, thanks to the synergy between the BJP and the cadre of various RSS front organisations. The Chief Ministers — Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh and Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh — who led the party campaign paid far more attention to maintaining the link with RSS volunteers than projecting their own personalities. This, a section of the party believes, was not the case in Rajasthan and Delhi. And in Jammu and Kashmir, the party did extremely well only in comparison with the 2002 election results, but not as well as it expected to do, despite the weeks-long Amarnath land agitation. And in Mizoram, the Congress simply swept the election.

There is another section in the party that believes that given the anti-incumbency and the Gujjar agitation in Rajasthan, the BJP performed not too badly, thanks to the leadership of Vasundhara Raje. And in Delhi, this section would like to believe that the party’s third consecutive defeat in the Assembly election was the result of projecting the wrong man with age not on his side as its chief ministerial candidate. There is, as yet, unwillingness to concede that the BJP failed in its attempt to electorally cash in on the Mumbai terror strike or to make a dent in Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s image despite an aggressive campaign.

Against the backdrop of the emergence of these two contradictory views, top party leaders — possibly L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu and a few others — are scheduled to meet RSS general secretary Mohan Bhagwat at the RSS Jhandewalan headquarters on Friday. While there is no fixed agenda — officially the meeting was described as routine — it is expected that this issue would be discussed.

A meeting of the party’s Parliamentary Board is also scheduled on Friday morning. While some issues related to the States where Assembly elections took place will be discussed, the curious case of the missing currency notes from the safes in the party office may also be brought up by some members.

There is some talk in the party of the RSS strengthening its direct presence in the party by “loaning” more full-time RSS volunteers to the BJP. But this has not yet materialised. However, it appears certain that the former Swadeshi Jagaran Manch chief, Muralidhar Rao, is to be inducted as an aide to party president Rajnath Singh to strengthen the direct link with the RSS (the SJM is a front organisation of the RSS and had clashed with the Vajpayee government disagreeing with the continued liberalisation of the economy). Already the key position of general secretary (organisation) in each State and the central party is held by RSS men who are the point men for BJP-RSS coordination at the ground level.
Meetings postponed

A senior leader indicated that the decision to hold the next National Council and National Executive Committee meeting in Nagpur was also a pointer to the strengthening relationship and the increasing RSS influence. That meeting, earlier fixed for January 23 to 25, has been changed to February 6 to 8.