The Organiser editor R. Balashankar welcomes L.K. Advani as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. “He is a tough-minded optimist. From the fringes he nurtured the BJP to the centre stage and he charioted a great ideological evolution in political campaigns. He offered an alternative approach, canvassed support for a new idea and pioneered a fresh debate that changed the style and substance of Indian political formulations. In this he earned a large fan following among the right intelligentsia. He is both the darling and whipping boy of the media. No other contemporary politician encountered and survived as much controversy as Advani. That the BJP has emerged an equal and effective alternative to the Congress is a measure of his accomplishment. The year-long speculation about reservations within the parivar on Advani’s leadership had to end. The Jinnah episode eroded his authority. It saddened his admirers. But it did not diminish his clout. After Vajpayee he enjoys the highest stature in the party. He is its real builder. He has a vision and a mission, which boost him as the leader India awaits.” Ram and historyThe Organiser editorial lampoons the government panel on Sethusamudram. “The committee, according to a report in The Sunday Express, has submitted a two-volume report running into 150 pages recommending that there is no evidence to prove the existence of any man-made structure where the Sethusamudram canal project is to be located. The report staying clear of Sri Ram and his historicity dutifully submitted what the UPA mandarins wanted it to state: that there was no tangible evidence to prove any man-made structure at the project location and that the bridge or Ram Sethu is like several other geo-morphological features and that the government should go ahead with the Sethu project. Why is it that the central government is always too eager only to disprove the Hindu faith? What does it gain by denying India its glorious past? Does it believe that de-Hinduising the majority in the country is the grand idea of nation building?” Besieged HinduM .D. Nalapat speaks of the plight of Hindus in Malaysia and links it to their condition in India. “It is obvious that the Sonia-led UPA sees anything ‘Hindu’ (even Sri Ram, who belongs to all) as something to be confronted and wherever possible eliminated. Over the past two years. a quiet and informal effort has been launched to identify ‘RSS sympathisers’ within the national, state and local governments, and silently seek to ensure the marginalisation of such ‘undesirable’ officers. To be a practicing Hindu in Sonia-run India is becoming a danger to one’s career and in time, perhaps even to health.”
