Buoyed by exit poll claims that the BJP was picking up in Uttar Pradesh, the latest issue of Organiser indulges in a bit of premature euphoria with a screaming front-page headline “Big Hindutva Surge — BJP is the front runner in UP.” The accompanying report says that all political players in the state “have started realising that the BJP is fast emerging as the dark (sorry, saffron) horse in this race. The BJP cadres are not only bolstered by the party’s superb performance in the recent elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Delhi but also by the unprecedented solidarity of Hindutva forces in the state, who are sparing no stone unturned to make the party win.”

Asserting that the morale of the party cadres was “on an all-time high”, the report adds: “Leading their victory march in the remaining four phases would be none other than the ever popular former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who is all set to hit the campaign trail next week. The nation too is getting ready for an encore performance from the BJP after its recent hat-trick.”

On Congress’s trail

The editorial focuses on the Congress party’s alleged pandering to Muslims in the backdrop of the UP assembly elections. It sharply attacks a booklet published by the AICC highlighting the achievements of prominent Muslims in India — including Azim Premji, Shahrukh Khan, Irfan Pathan, Bismillah Khan, Zakir Hussain et al — and attributing it to Congress rule.

Similarly, Sonia Gandhi’s personal letter in Urdu to thousands of Muslim leaders across UP appealing for help to fight against caste and communalism is also severely attacked. Says the editorial, “When she talks of building a society of ‘your dreams’ and sends it only to prominent Muslims it sounds ominous. Is it a way of promising a state and social order conditioned by Islamic laws and world vision? And if this is secularism, how does one define communalism?”

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