Virtually gearing up for mid-term polls, the BJP on Friday took its Ram Sethu campaign a notch further by asking Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh to sack DMK ministers from the Union Cabinet if Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi failed to apologise for questioning the existence of Lord Ram.The party even dropped a not-so-subtle hint that it now had a new ally (Jayalalithaa) “down South” and it won’t have any future ties with the DMK, whose leader indulged in “blasphemy”.Addressing the inaugural session of the party's national executive meet here, BJP President Rajnath Singh said not even Mughal emperor Aurangzeb or any other foreign ruler had the courage to question the existence of Ram.“Hindu centres of reverence are being constantly demolished after the UPA-Left Front coalition Government has come to power,” Singh said, adding that the “ASI affidavit has established the Government’s anti-Hindu mindset”. Such infringement on subjects of faiths can lead to serious communal tension, he warned.“I want to ask the Congress party, was Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of Ram Rajya a delusion based on a hollow foundation?” Singh said, accusing the Congress of taking vote bank politics to its lowest point and demanded a public apology from the PM as well.Singh said the Government was practically in minority because allies like the DMK, which was part of the Government, and the Left Front, which was supporting it from outside, were speaking against the Government. The party should immediately call a session of Parliament and seek a vote of confidence, he said.Lok Sabha elections are a certainty, Singh said, adding that his party was best suited to lead a new coalition Government. “Coalition Governments are indispensable in the present scenario. The Congress has not shown political maturity, it completely lacks the understanding of basic dharma of coalition politics."In his 15-page long speech, the BJP President accused the Congress and the UPA coalition of compromising the country’s internal and external security by being soft of terror. Quoting reports, Singh said the chief of the northern command of Indian Army had opposed any move by the Government to consider a ceasefire during Ramzan because up to 5,000 militants were ready to infiltrate into Kashmir from the Pakistan side. “To deal with the situation, the Army requires a 10-fold increase over the current number of troops but, ironically, the Government has taken a decision to withdraw troops from terrorism affected regions,” he said. “When someone is taken into custody on charges of being a terrorist, our PM is unable to sleep,” taunted Singh, asking why the Government did not show the same concern for soldiers who fall prey to terrorists.The BJP president said the party supported good relations with the US and indeed took pride in bringing about a paradigm shift in Indo-US ties. “We initiated the tectonic shift in the existing level of strategic cooperation and understanding between both countries after the 1998 Pokhran tests. But the Government has committed a mistake by compromising India’s long-term strategic interests. Under no cost will we ever accept our atomic sovereignty to be controlled or our foreign policy to be influenced,” Singh said, reiterating the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee to study the deal.Meanwhile, senior leader Yashwant Sinha said the Tamil Nadu CM had lost his mental balance. “Had he made such comments about any other religion, its followers would have skinned him,” he said.
