The former President of BJP was critical about the Congress party and dubbed it ‘synonymous with corruption and scams’ and stated that the 2G spectrum, CWG, Mumbai Adarsh Housing are major scams in the UPA tenure that have tarnished the image of India globally.

“Evey party has their own ideology and policy to inspire their workers. LK Advani’s ongoing yatra is BJP’s matter and his initiative to energise  members across the country. It might help the party, but it will be difficult to talk about its impact on the general population in Assam.” - Apurba Bhattacharya (Asom Gana Parishad)

Mentioning the huge volume of Indian money deposited in foreign banks, Advani quoted the version of America based Global Financial Integrity to describe that the ‘black money stashed away by Indians in Swiss banks was more than the black money deposited by the depositors from other countries like China, Russia, France, America etc taken together’.

Regarding 25 lakh crore Indian rupees deposited in various banks outside the country, the chairman of BJP’s Parliamentary Board claimed that if all the black money can be brought back, lakhs of Indian villages could get some basic facilities like water, electricity, roads, school and modern health care.

The Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had recently expressed his inability to disclose the name of owners of the unaccounted wealth in foreign banks. Speaking about the recent Act of Switzerland titled ‘Restitution of Illicit Assets Act’, Advani argued that the UPA government should take advantage of it and ‘get back the black money from the Swiss banks’. “I have already written to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to avail the opportunity and also pressurize Switzerland to get the money back,” Advani said.

“The ‘Jan Chetna Yatra’ by LK Advani was nothing but a political gimmick with an eye on capturing power. It is similar to his earlier ‘Rath Yatra’ but he will never succeed in Assam as the people of our state understand the uselessness of these kinds of activities,”  - Assam CM Tarun Gogoi.

He also demanded that the government should immediately come up with a ‘white paper on what action it has taken to retrieve the black money from Swiss banks’.  Advani did not forget to assure that his party, if voted to power next time, would bring back the black money from the Swiss banks.

Reacting to Prime Minister Dr Singh’s remark that Advani should not use harsh words against him, the outspoken politician maintained that Dr. Singh is the weakest Prime Minister of the country till date. He went on to assert that “If calling a spade a spade is wrong, then I plead guilty.”

In Itanagar, the iron man of Indian politics asserted that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and Beijing’s eye on it would never be tolerated.  Addressing a massive rally in the State, Advani declared that BJP would always oppose any Chinese move to stake claim on Arunachal Pradesh (and Jammu & Kashmir).

It was coincidental that Arunachal (and Assam) were attacked by the Chinese army on October 20th in 1962. Amidst the ‘Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai’ chanting by the policy makers of India and China, the unpredicted aggression shocked the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Finally USA came in support of India and the Chinese army left Indian territories.

Advani also criticized the Central Government for the prevailing “socio-political unrest in the Congress-ruled Northeastern states, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh.” He also cited the example of Meghalaya, where “Frequent infighting within the Congress has made the Chief Minister’s seat a musical chair.”

Advani is known for his ‘yatras’ from time to time and this is his sixth ‘yatra’ in nearly six decades of his political career. The veteran politician undertook ‘Ram Rath Yatra’ in 1990 to garner support for rebuilding the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Later he led the ‘Janadesh Yatra’ in 1993 to mobilise public opinion against the government’s attempt to ban religion from public life.

To commemorate the golden jubilee of India’s independence, Advani took part in ‘Swarna Jayanti Yatra’ in 1997. He initiated the ‘Bharat Udaya Yatra’ in 2004 primarily to campaign for his party candidates ahead of general elections. Later he launched ‘Bharat Surakshya Yatra’ in 2006 to highlight the failure of the UPA government in dealing with terrorism.

Advani’s sixth ‘yatra’ was launched on October 11th from Bihar. Initially the ‘yatra’ was planned to start from Sitab Diara, the birthplace of Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan, but it was finally flagged off from Chhapra, around 20 kms away from Sitab Diara as the former location was inundated by flood water. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the ‘yatra’.

It is mentionable here that Jayprakash Narayan led ‘Total Revolution’ in 1974 mobilizing the students and youth against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who later imposed a state of emergency in 1975. But the Ms. Gandhi led Congress had to face a heavy loss in the 1977 general election and was ousted from power.

Unlike Advani’s former ‘yatras’, the latest one included the Northeastern region of India. BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad disclosed that it was Advani’s personal wish to include at least Guwahati and Itanagar in the route of the ‘Jan Chetna Yatra’.

The 38 day long ‘Jan Chetna Yatra’ will cover around 7,600 kms running through 100 districts in 23 states and 4 Union Territories across the country. It will be culminated on November 20th in New Delhi on the eve of Parliament’s winter session beginning on November 21st.

 

“LK Advani’s yatra is known to everyone and we know that he is trying to project himself as the next Prime Minister of India. My request to Advaniji is that he should visit our region in general ambience, not with a yatra. I believe he can help our region as a senior political personality in many aspects.  I have respect to Advaniji but we can not support his point of views on the minority people of Assam.” - Dr Aditya Langthasa (All India United Democratic Front)

The BJP General Secretary Ananth Kumar functioned as the chief convener and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Murlidhar Rao and Jaju as co-conveners for the ‘yatra’. Ananth Kumar had earlier declared that the ‘yatra’ was not designed for political purposes. Moreover, Advani is not using this event to project himself as the NDA prime ministerial candidate in the next general election. Rather the initiative has been taken to bring the issues of clean politics and good governance to centre-stage, he added.

“Good governance and clean politics is the catch-line of the ‘yatra’. Advaniji has already chanted “Bhrashtachar Mitayenge, Naya Bharat Banayenge” (Will root out corruption and rebuild a new India) and all the BJP workers are following his leadership,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, an influential student leader turned AGP Parliamentarian turned Assam BJP leader.

The crowded Guwahati meeting was attended by a number of BJP high profile personalities such as the party’s National General Secretary Kiron Maheswari, Assam BJP President Ranjit Dutta, three MPs Bijoya Chakraborty, Ramen Deka and Rajen Gohain, State BJP spokesperson Shantanu Bharali etc. Many other BJP leaders from the North East states were also present at the Guwahati rally.

Nava Thakuria