New Delhi: Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of deliberately creating and highlighting contention on national security issues as a political strategy, Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav warned that the long term result would endanger national interests.
He was speaking in the context of the BJP’s response to Congress leader Sam Pitroda’s comments on the Balakot air strikes, and other efforts by the BJP to “hijack the electoral agenda” by appealing to people’s emotions to generate war rhetoric.
“Who is Sam Pitroda in the Congress? Why play up such statements? The BJP is fishing for any possible dissension and foregrounding it,” said Mr. Yadav. “It is dangerous to activate faultlines with regard to national security issues for petty political gains. A responsible government would seek to diffuse such faultlines… It may be a smart political strategy in the short term but, in the long term, it will endanger the country, including our national security.”
Swaraj India is one among the 30-odd civil society networks and people’s movements that are spearheading a campaign to bring ‘real issues’ — such as education, health, farmers’ issues and jobs — back into electoral focus. Launched on Saturday, which was Shaheed Divas or Martyrs’ Day, the ‘Desh Mera, Vote Mera, Mudda Mera’ campaign held events in approximately 300 locations across the country, ending with a mass Adivasi mela in the Nandurbar district of Maharashtra. The campaign sought to focus on the wider national vision of martyrs such as Bhagat Singh, and socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, whose birth anniversary also falls on March 23. Some of the major networks that participated include the National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Samnvay Samiti, Pension Parishad, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information, Right to Education Forum and the Satark Nagrik Sangathan.
“The narrative of our Lok Sabha elections is being dictated by actors in Pakistan. Rather than presenting a score card of its five-year performance, Modi government is hiding behind the pretence of national security,” said an official statement from the campaign.
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