Dr Anand Virgincar wrote: I feel the BJP ( as a whole ) has no option but to move away from the " Hindutva " part of their agenda . Relying too heavily on this is not likely to win them a national election . Even Modi did not use the " Hindutva " card in the recent Gujarat elections , at the risk of distancing himself from the RSS and the VHP. He won resoundingly neverthless , a point Advani should be more than capable of taking serious note about. b) With respect to Goa itself , there is no question whatsoever that the " communal " tag of the BJP party and Manohar Parrikar have been blown out of all proportions by the Congress propaganda machine . I will tackle this in more in the response I have promised Mervyn-bab regarding Manohar Parrikars errors. c) Another reason Manohar Parrikar and the Goa BJP are unlikely to venture too much into the " Hindutva " territory is because of the demographics of the Goan electorate ( this is blatantly obvious to anyone who cares to look at the proportion of different communities in individual assembly constiuencies ).
Comment: 1. Perhaps Dr Anand is joking when he says that Modi did not use the Hindutva card in the Gujarat election. Perhaps he should refer to the newspapers and newscasts of the day to refresh his memory. When Modi found that he was not making much ground on the development card, he resorted to Hindutva by blatantly justifying the extrajudicial killing of Sohrabuddin and making subtle threats of how other muslims would be dealt with in Gujarat. This appeal for blood made the difference to the margin of victory. Otherwise, if you scan the records, you will observe that prior to Godhra, the BJP was consistently losing every election - be it gram panchayat, municipal. In fact in the last Lok sabha elections, the BJP won 14 seats against the Congress' 12. 2. I do not ever remember communalism being an emotive issue and a divide in Goa prior to the advent of the BJP. The BJP in its brief reign has sown the seeds of communalism, the fruits of which we are seeing today even on Goanet, where one finds postings of hatred and venom and RSS propaganda stuff with blatant disregard for facts and the truth. The was the point that Sema had made. 3. The BJP has made progress not on any development card but by exploiting religious emotions. Even today Modi is the role model for the BJP. They create an imaginary enemy a la Hitler did with the Jews and then try to polarise the communities. In the rest of India, where muslims are in substantial numbers, they are the enemy and in places, where christians are in large numbers, they are made out to be the enemy. eg: false propaganda on the inquisition, inflamatory VCD, etc. 4. the BJP in Goa is no different from the BJP in Gujarat. Only they have not had the opportunity to display their prowess. Anyone who thinks otherwise ids living in a fools paradise. Mog asundi, Marshall Mendonza
