‘My group will back nationalist forces’
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, May 5: Maintaining that he will support the voice of Jammu and nationalist forces in the coming Municipal and Urban Local Bodies (ULB) elections to teach the BJP a lesson, former Union Minister of State and rebel BJP leader, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta today said that these elections will be a turning point in the politics of Jammu and will give a severe blow to those who ganged up against him and other six MLAs of the Party.
In an exclusive interview to Excelsior, Prof Gupta said that he will not remain calm and unfold the truth as some vested elements within and outside the BJP tried to tarnish his and his colleagues’ image.
Expressing the hope that those who conspired against him and his colleagues will be exposed in these elections, Prof Gupta said he was confident that people will support him and unmask the conspiracy.
He said he and his team will support the nationalist forces in these elections minus BJP to teach the party a lesson as they have put a black spot on his over 60 year old political career.
Ruling out joining any political party at this stage of his life, Prof Gupta said that as a staunch RSS man he remained wedded to a particular ideology throughout his life and also worked as Pracahrak of Sangh in Ahmadabad in Gujarat in 1958 and was the State Karivah of the Sangh before joining politics at the instance of late Pt Prem Nath Dogra and then RSS Sarsanghchalak, Guru Golevalkar in 1972.
“I took this decision despite the late BJP leader Th Baldev Singh advising me not to join the opposition party in view of the increasing popularity of Mrs Indira Gandhi who had won the 1971 Bangladesh war.
“This was a crucial decision on my part because I left a brilliant career as College professor and joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS)” he added.
“But the Party which I served over 40 years has ignored my loyalty and they did not leave any stone unturned in defaming me”, he said, adding “the people have vindicated my stand and it was proved in recent Chamber elections when my brother Arun Gupta was elected as its general secretary with highest margin of votes”.
Lambasting BJP, he said the Party is like a rudderless ship at present and there is no one to challenge the separatists and secessionist elements in which Jammu had taken a lead so far. “Jammu has always led the national movement in the State and stood as a rock against the secessionist and separatist forces. The voice of Jammu was required to be strengthened. It is irony of fate that those at the helm of affairs in State BJP at present have not even contested a corporation election and these people have been asked to decide my fate”, he added.
The need of hour is that a concentrated struggle should be launched to fight against the growing discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh regions to which the rebel BJP MLAs will continue their fight, he asserted.
Outrightly rejecting the allegations of cross voting against him and his other six colleagues, he said on what grounds the Party came to a conclusion that our group had cross voted in the last year’s Legislative Council elections when it was a secret voting.
“Moreover why party with 11 MLAs only had fielded a candidate when it was not in a position to win the election as a winning candidate needed 28 votes and it was decided earlier that BJP will boycott the poll as there were rumors that some Partymen will cross vote in favour of NC”, he added.
“Had I been told that my ideas were not acceptable to the party I would have resigned on my own but they should have refrained from tarnishing my image when I stood with Party through its good and bad days since the Praja Parishad movement”, Prof Gupta said.
He said that he would not sit idle till proved innocent. “I have seen many ups and downs in my political career and faced all odds bravely till date and I will overcome this challenge as well as I don’t want to die with a black spot on my political career”, he added.
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