‘BJP will forge ahead’

Patna: Expressing clear disregard for Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, both products of the JP-led movement of 1974 and declared Lohiaites, BJP’s national spokesman Sudhanshu Trivedi said here on Friday as and when the ‘janata parivar’ parties “ganged up” against the BJP, the latter only forged ahead with greater strength since 1980 – the year BJP was born over the double-member issue in the then Janata Party – winning more parliamentary seats than before from 1991.
At the same time, Trivedi said, the BJP has equal respect for Ram Manohar Lohia and Jaya Prakash Narayan (JP). Ironically, both Lohia and JP harboured perceptions about the killing of Mahatma Gandhi that might not be palatable to the BJP leaders.
Incidentally, Lohia, inventing his plank of anti-Congressism, had aligned with the then Bharatiya Jana Sangh to win the Farrukhabad parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh, and 11 years later, JP, during the anti-Congress 1974 students’ agitation in Bihar, was not averse to taking the help of the RSS and its affiliates, like Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
Asked about his party’s bid to appropriate the legacy of Congress stalwart from Tamil Nadu, K Kamaraj, who is credited with helping install first Lal Bahadur Shastri and then Indira Gandhi as the country’s PM, in 1964 and 1966, respectively, Trivedi said, “The question should be asked to the Congress why it had neglected Kamaraj all these years.”
In the light of the party’s bid for symbolic appropriation of leaders of other parties, whatever their ideological hues, Trivedi’s reply to a question showed that BJP is not overly hostile towards West Bengal CM and Indian communist icon Jyoti Basu. He said, “The BJP respects all sections of society. It also respects people who have contributed to nation building.” He was asked after how many years the BJP would put Jyoti Basu into its pantheon of icons? Trivedi was surprised at this question and wanted to know if the question was about 19th century social reformer Jyotiba Phule from Maharashtra. When told that it was indeed about Jyoti Basu, he refrained from giving a categorical reply.