21 November 1989
Reuters News
English
(c) 1989 Reuters Limited 

NEW DELHI, Nov 21, Reuters – The leader of an increasingly powerful rightwing Hindu party said on Tuesday that India faces instability if the opposition alliance he backs wins this week’s elections. 

Lal Krishna Advani of the revivalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was harsh in his comments about deep differences between opposition groups that could affect their chances of forming a government. 

“It is a mess,” Advani said of the arithmetic likely to result from the elections to the 545-member parliament. 

India’s 498 million voters decide on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday whether they want a change of government. Opinion polls suggest Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress party faces defeat for only the second time in 42 years. 

Speaking in a voice hoarse from campaigning, Advani used strong language about the Janata Dal, core of a coalition of five opposition groups called the National Front. 

The BJP refused to join the alliance but worked out a seat-sharing deal with it so it would not split the opposition vote. It has promised to support a National Front government. 

“My objective is to topple Gandhi, to see that dynastic rule in Delhi comes to an end. That in itself would be a boon. I do not see Rajiv returning again if he’s defeated this time. He’s not Indira Gandhi,” Advani said in an interview.

Gandhi, his mother Indira—who bounced back after losing elections in 1977 and was assassinated seven years later  and his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru have ruled India for 37 of its 42 years of independence from Britain. 

If Gandhi loses, the Janata Dal’s Vishwanath Pratap Singh is the frontrunner to succeed him. He is unlikely to get the job without a fight from other ambitious opposition leaders. 

“I visualise a period of political instability. I do not see the Janata Dal as a stable entity. It is here today, it may not be there six months hence. It may fragment again. There may be fresh realignments,” Advani said. 

“I have not decided today as to whether I shall be in the government or not. How, on what terms, what kind of programme the government will have. All these things have to be seen.” 

The immediate focus of Advani’s anger is Singh’s wooing of India’s 100 million-strong Moslem minority, whose leaders have told them to vote against Congress because of the outbreak of violence between Moslems and militant Hindus. 

“I am angry with centrist parties generally. They’re keen to use me. They cannot ignore my cadres. If today I were to declare that I’ll have no truck with the Janata Dal, 80 per cent of the Moslem vote will go to the Congress,” Advani said. 

The deepening religious rift, from which the BJP appears to have benefited, has been a major campaign issue. 

“The average leader has come to behave in a manner as if all citizens may be equal but the minorities are more equal than the majority. This is creating a violent reaction,” Advani said. 

“It is these political leaders who are interpreting secularism in a perverse manner. They think that a Moslem saying ‘I’m proud of Islam’ is a good thing, but a Hindu saying ‘I’m proud of Hinduism’ is… a fanatic.” 

“If only appeasement stops, if Moslems do not have a separate personal law, If Kashmir (India’s only Moslem­ majority state) does not enjoy a special status under the Constitution… if concern for the block Moslem vote stops, it would straighten things,” Advani said.