New Delhi, May 16
The BJP, which has been finding itself in a helpless situation on the ‘foreign origin’ issue after the Lok Sabha poll outcome, appears to have got a platform to attack Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Former BJP general secretary and senior RSS leader Govindacharya, who had been in political hibernation for over four years, today announced that he would launch a Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan (national self-respect movement) to protest against the Congress’ decision to name Ms Sonia Gandhi for the post of the Prime Minister.
Appealing to the Congress allies to stall a person of foreign origin from occupying the highest executive post in the country, Mr Govindacharya said here that eminent citizens would meet President A P J Abdul Kalam on May 18 and give him a memorandum asking him “to think what he can do about it”.
Significantly, the announcement of Mr Govindacharya comes a day after former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj had declared that she and her husband would resign as Rajya Sabha members if Ms Gandhi became Prime Minister.
Trying to give an emotional touch to his proposed movement, Mr Govindacharya said “every self-respecting citizen of this country should think how he or she would feel if Ms Gandhi became Prime Minister and hoist the national tricolour from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort on Independence Day.”
Mr Govindacharya said while he respected Ms Gandhi as a mother and a Congress woman who faced her family crisis in a bold manner, the country could not accept her as the Prime Minister since she was of a foreign origin.
“It will remain her natural handicap. I do not know how many years it will take her to overcome this,” he said, appealing to the Congress to choose any other leader like Mr Manmohan Singh or Mr Pranab Mukherjee for a post of “national prestige.”
Stressing that while the Constitution permitted Ms Gandhi to become the Prime Minister, the nation would consider it as a “calamity” coming in the wake of a fractured mandate, he said.
He announced that the day Ms Gandhi was sworn in as the Prime Minister, it would be observed by the BJP as a “black day” for the nation.
Asked why the BJP, which had considered foreign origin as one of the important issues, did not bring a Bill during their five-year rule, Mr Govindacharya, who does not hold the membership of the BJP, said “no political party, even many Congress leaders, expected this kind of a situation as Ms Gandhi was never projected as a prime ministerial candidate.”
Though Mr Govindacharya refrained from saying whether he had the backing of the Sangh Parivar outfits like the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the BJP, it was quite obvious when he said, “I expect the support of all self-respecting citizens and also many sants and sadhus.”
Meanwhile, impartial political observers felt that the launching of this movement was an attempt by the Sangh Parivar and the BJP to “test the waters”.
“If the movement gets the desired response from the people, then the Sangh Parivar outfits and the BJP would openly jump into the movement,” they said, pointing out that it could also be an attempt by Mr Govindacharya to stage a comeback in the “political arena”.
When contacted, RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav said the decision of Mr Govindacharya to launch the movement was a spontaneous one and there was no doubt many RSS cadres and common people would participate in it.
“Our (the RSS’s) stand has been clear and consistent that it would be a disgrace to India if a person of foreign origin occupies the top executive post,” he said, adding “so it is obvious that not only the RSS cadre but also hundreds and thousands of self-respecting countrymen will participate in the movement.”
“We are already getting reports from different parts of the country about a spontaneous reaction from the people, including some Christian organisations, over the Congress’ decision to project Ms Gandhi as Prime Minister,” Mr Madhav claimed.
On the other hand, the BJP consciously avoided making any statement on the proposed movement. “It is his (Mr Govindacharya’s) decision,” BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
