Vajpayee should stop using Sharon’s language

 

Terrorism seems to be the Vajpayee government and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) new political mantra – both for domestic politics and for international diplomacy. Prime Minister Vajpayee himself laid bare his gameplan on the eve of his departure to Kathmandu for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit.

The BJP will now play the terrorism card to lift the party’s prospects in the mid-February Assembly elections in the key states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. During his stay in Lucknow, where he attended the inauguration of the 89th Indian Science Congress, Vajpayee used his oratorical skills to whip up passions with his “no compromise with terrorism” rhetoric. Indeed, Vajpayee’s rhetoric must have seemed like music to BJP’s ears as its prospects looked particularly grim in Uttar Pradesh following the revelation of the coffin scam.

Vajpayee played the Kargil War card in the last Parliamentary elections and managed to bring his party back to power at the national level in 1999. He now hopes to revive his party’s fortunes selling the terrorism card at the provincial-level elections. Uttar Pradesh is the known bastion of anti-Pakistan feelings in India. Vajpayee’s anti-terrorism rhetoric in Kathmandu is likely to work for the BJP back home.

Clearly, Vajpayee will stick to his terrorism mantra to win coming State elections and keep South Asia under clouds of war.

India does not need an external enemy to destroy herself as long as they have Advani and Vajpayee as their leaders.

The Indians should think twice to opt for continuing with them.