23, Mar 2008

 The
Citizens for Justice amd Peace (CJP) and SAHMAT urge the
various allies who constitute the NDA coalition and who believe in
Constitutional Governance to not only condemn outright, the communal
hate-ridden speeches of Varun Gandhi while campaigning in Pilibhit
in Uttar Pradesh but to ensure that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
does not nominate him as a candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha
elections.

The
letter has been written to Nitish Kumar of JD(U), Om Prakash
Chautala Indian National Lok Dal, President Assom Gana Parishad and
Ajit Singh of the RLD.

 Varun
GandhiÂ’s hate speech epitomises the core of the BJPÂ’s supremist and
ultra nationalist ideology that has always targeted IndiaÂ’s
syncretic civilisational ethos and specifically (and crudely)
targets Muslims, Christians and others sections of Indian.

The
BJPÂ’s core ideology stems from its politcal heart the Rashtryiya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and is openly being backed by the BJP party.

The
allies of the NDA who swear by the Indian Constitution need need to
make their position clear on Varunn GandhiÂ’s speech and his possible
prospective nomination as a Lok Sabha candidate from Pilibhit. Not
to oppose his nomination and candiadture as Lok Sabha candidate is
to support not just Varun  Gandhi but the BJP that has grown from
strength to strength through flagrant violations of the Indian
Constitution and the rule of law.

In
the past, prime minsterial aspirant Shri LK Advani has been known to
have indulged in similar hate mongering (en route to Ayodhya in
December 1992); senior party leaders like Shri Murli Manohar Joshi
have also committed similar offences; Gujarat chief minister
Naremdra ModiÂ’s statements on the internally displaced refugees
livng in pathetic conditions in relief camps of the state in 2002
were not just violations of the law, but shocking; fratermal
organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parisgad (VHP) and the Bajrang
Dal (BD) have taken the entire content and tempo of hate speech to
the levels of a cynical game and continue to indulge in these
criminal violations because they escape the long arms of the
law.

It is
about time that all those political players who have a stake in the
future of Indian democracy, who are fighting the elections and
especially those who have in the past and still continue to support
the BJP-driven NDA come clean on Varun GandhiÂ’s speech and oppose
his nomination as a BJP canbdidate. Not to do so would be to support
the content of the violence ridden speech made by him. 

Teesta Setalvad   

Javed Akhtar     

Javed Anand    

Rahul Bose   

Vivan Sundaram     

Ram Rahman       

MK Raina         

Shakti Kjak     

Archana Prasad

Madhu Prasad

CP Chandrashekhar

Indira Chandrashekhar

Badri Raina

Prabhat Patnaik   

Utsa Patnaik

Chanchal Chauhan