By IANS
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday accused the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the Left parties of “surrendering to Islamic fundamentalists” over exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen’s stay in India and slammed their “politics of opportunism” over the India-US nuclear deal.
Nasreen should be treated as a “political refugee in India with a right to live with dignity and security. She is entitled to all rights which have been given to the Tibetan refugees”, BJP said in a resolution adopted at a meeting of its office bearers here.
India’s chief opposition party alleged that while the centre and the Left Front government in West Bengal were welcoming millions of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh into the country, they have shut the doors on Nasreen due to “vote bank politics”.
“A victim of political persecution is being persecuted further. The irony of this issue is the customary silence of the prime minister and the central government,” the party alleged.
“Mass scale illegal immigration from Bangladesh has served both the Congress and the CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) as a convenient vote bank even though it may have hurt India’s security concerns,” the resolution said.
Nasreen was forced to quit her country following a fatwa against her due to her controversial writings. She had been living in Kolkata for years but had to leave the city Thursday, a day after protests against her stay turned violent.
After staying a night in Jaipur, she reached New Delhi Friday night amid heavy security.
The meeting, chaired by party president Rajnath Singh, was attended by senior leaders L.K. Advani, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha, party vice presidents and general secretaries and state-level leaders.
Rajnath Singh alleged that the Congress and the Left were “preaching secularism” but in reality they were “practising communalism”.
Drawing a parallel between the Nasreen case and the enactment of a legislation to nullify the effect of the Shahn Bano judgement in the late 1980s, the party alleged that both involved surrender to “Islamic fundamentalists”.
The party resolution also criticised the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for going soft on terrorism and pursuing a policy of vote bank politics on critical issues having a bearing on national security.
Ahead of the debate in parliament on the India-US nuclear deal Tuesday, Rajnath Singh said it had “exposed” the “politics of opportunism” displayed by both the Congress and the Left.
The strongly worded resolution sought to expose the “complete breakdown of authority of the central government and the prime minister on matters of governance” because of the absence of “decision-making”.
“There are only two priorities that the UPA government has. Firstly, survival at any cost… Secondly, perpetuate the politics of vote bank consideration even if it has an impact on national security and integrity,” it said.
The party also made a blistering critique of violence in West Bengal’s Nandigram allegedly instigated by armed CPI-M cadres, saying that it had shown the whole country the “real, ugly and fascist face” of the Marxist party. “The CPI-M is hostile to any form of dissent and criticism,” it added.
Advani called Nandigram a “turning point” in the CPI-M’s history.
The resolution charged that the Congress “lacks the confidence” to criticise the CPI-M, which leads the Leftist parties in supporting the central government from outside.
Referring to the multiple terror attacks in Uttar Pradesh Friday, the party said it was “symbolic of the terrorists’ ability to strike at will and reminds us of the helplessness of the central government.”
The meeting also reviewed the party’s programmes and preparations for the forthcoming assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.