Hindu nationalists stake out turf<\/p>\n
By Nelson Graves<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI (Reuter): They have canceled a big U.S.-built power
\nproject, launched a drive to kick foreign consumer goods out of
\nIndia and threatened Moslem pilgrims.<\/p>\n
Flexing their muscles months before general elections, Hindu
\nnationalists have begun drawing battle lines for a fight which
\nthreatens to have anti-foreign, anti-Moslem overtones.<\/p>\n
The themes are part of a broad strategy sketched out last
\nmonth by leaders of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party
\n(BJP), by far the largest Hindu nationalist party.<\/p>\n
In 1984 general elections, the BJP won two of 545 seats in the
\nlower house of parliament. They raised the number to 85 in 1989
\nand to 120 two years later.<\/p>\n
Now the BJP says it is ready to capitalize on a gaping split
\nin the ruling Congress party and voter disenchantment to clinch
\npower in general elections due by mid-1996 but expected early
\nnext year.<\/p>\n
\"Even our critics admit that the BJP is now unstoppable,\"
\nparty president L.K. Advani said recently.<\/p>\n
He may have overstated his case, according to political
\nanalysts who say polls could well yield a badly hung parliament.<\/p>\n
That would usher in a period of power-sharing, only the third
\nsince India gained independence from Britain in 1947. For all but
\nthree years since then, Congress has ruled India.<\/p>\n
Few doubt that the BJP, fresh from some important victories in
\nrecent state polls, will improve on its 1991 performance in
\ncoming elections and perhaps finish ahead of Prime Minister P.V.
\nNarasimha Rao's Congress party.<\/p>\n
The BJP expects to reap political gains from a decision last
\nweek to cancel a $2.8 billion power project in the western state
\nof Maharashtra.<\/p>\n
The BJP and its radical Hindu partner, Shiv Sena, say the
\nproject, India's biggest foreign investment, would have cost
\nconsumers too much and has alleged that the deal, struck by a
\nformer Congress state government, was tainted by kickbacks.<\/p>\n
Enron Corp, which led the U.S. consortium building the plant,
\nhas denied the allegation.<\/p>\n
The issue fits in nicely with the BJP strategy of painting
\nCongress as anti-poor, corrupt and partial to foreign firms.<\/p>\n
The BJP supports a campaign launched on Wednesday by an
\nindependent Hindu nationalist group against foreign consumer
\nproducts including U.S. soft drinks Pepsi and Coke.<\/p>\n
\"Computer chips, yes. Potato chips, no,\" former BJP president
\nMurli Manohar Joshi told Reuters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
India, surrounded by high tariffs, was virtually self-
\nsufficient in 1991 when Rao launched reforms which have opened
\nthe country to foreign investment and boosted trade.<\/p>\n
But the BJP reckons a nationalistic tilt against foreign
\nconsumer goods could play well with Indians who are proud of
\nthose home-grown brands now having trouble competing.<\/p>\n
Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray threatened retaliation against
\nMoslem Haj pilgrims last month if Hindus on a pilgrimage in
\nKashmir this week were attacked by Islamic militants.<\/p>\n
Thackeray's threat drew a quick riposte from a Moslem
\nseparatist group which vowed to kill him.<\/p>\n
The BJP was accused of whipping up communal passions in 1992
\nwhen Hindu zealots ripped down the 16th century Babri Masjid
\nmosque in the northern town of Ayodhya. Some 3,000 people were
\nkilled in Hindu-Moslem riots that followed.<\/p>\n
The party has since tried to strike a less provocative stance.
\nNow it is pushing for a uniform civil code which would force
\nMoslems to comply with standards in marriage and divorce that are
\ncontrary to their normal religious practices.<\/p>",
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