Vajpayee: Not bull’s eye

Bahraich, March 28: Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s second attempt today to ride the “feel-good” factor of the cricket win in Pakistan met with a tepid response from Muslim voters in this Uttar Pradesh district.

“Who would have thought that the reverberations of explosions across the border would give way to spontaneous cheers over cricket?” the Prime Minister asked, referring to the historic cricket series a second time after praising Mohammad Kaif at a rally in eastern Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

The BJP supporters cheered and clapped, but Muslim farmers in the crowd at Golghar ground in this minority-dominated district hardly stirred.

“We cannot probably play cricket for 365 days,” Vajpayee said, emphasising the futility of pushing cricket diplomacy too far.

“The ultimate aim of my government is permanent peace (with Pakistan). We have to work towards that, keeping in mind the ground realities. There is no alternative to peace,” the Prime Minister said, drawing the first and only mild cheers from the Muslim members.

“The reticence speaks of their disorientation,” Aslam Khan, a panchayat leader of Kaiserganj, said by way of an explanation.

Last week, the response had been better as the Prime Minister had first hailed Kaif as a son of Uttar Pradesh (he is from Allahabad) and then joked about Sourav Ganguly coming to seek his blessings though he did not know how to hold a bat.

The Prime Minister went on to praise Pakistan because “the initiatives for the peace effort are not one-sided. Our neighbouring country has also responded positively”.

But nothing quite moved the minority members, not even Arif Mohammad Khan’s appeal to take note of the changed political scenario. Arif is the BJP’s new high-profile minority entrant and candidate from Kaiserganj.

Playing the minority card for Arif, the Prime Minister said: “Discrimination on the basis of religion is a slur being hurled at us by the Opposition parties. But this is downright false propaganda. My government has taken a series of steps for promoting communal harmony.”

The BJP-led Centre, he said, had done nothing to hurt the republic yet the Opposition continued to allege that the NDA rule was a grave danger to the country. “The Congress thinks the country cannot run without it. But the NDA government’s successful completion of (a five-year) term has turned this into an illusion,” Vajpayee said.

Harping on the oft-repeated card of his government’s performance, the Prime Minister iterated his appeal to the minority community to change its mind about the BJP.

All the Centre’s initiatives, including job opportunities, should make the community introspect about the NDA government, he said.

The attempt to play up India-Pakistan ties, and later minority welfare, was aimed at appeasing over 42 per cent of the populace in this district bordering Nepal, that is Muslim. The community accounts for over 30 per cent of the population in neighbouring Kaiserganj.

Arif, who has spent the better part of his political career as a candidate from this district, won and lost three times each from Kaiserganj. He lost in 1999 as a Bahujan Samaj Party nominee.

Introduced by Vajpayee as the face of the newly awakened Muslim, Arif explained why he had joined the BJP because he has not been too popular among his community since.

He said he wanted the minority community to realise the ground realities of the country’s changing political situation.