Finance minister Arun Jaitley at National Youth Convention in Vrindavan.

AGRA: Union finance minister, Arun Jaitley, on Sunday claimed that the BJP had already won the “ideological war” in the raging debate of nationalists versus anti nationals, sparked by the alleged hate and divisive speeches at JNU. He also dubbed Communists of being “anti-democracy” and said that speaking against India is nothing new for them.

Jaitley, who was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha national convention here, said, “Hum jeet gaye hain. Jo ek baar desh tordne ke naare laga rahe the, jab jail se bahar aaye hain to Jai Hind or desh ke jhande ke saath naare laga rahe” (We have won. Those who were once shouting slogans for dividing the country are now raising slogans of Jai Hind and speaking with the national tri colour by their side after their release from the jail). Though the Finance Minister did not even once mention the name of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar in his speech, his reference was more than obvious.

Interestingly, Jaitely’s claims of ideological victory come a day after BJP chief Amit Shah said at the same conclave that the Congress should be ashamed at Rahul Gandhi's visit to JNU and his stand on the anti-national versus nationalist debate. Jaitley's claim, which is bound to trigger more debate on the issue, also hints at a clear hardening of stand by the BJP on the issues surrounding JNU and the Kanhaiya Kumar controversy.

Lambasting the Congress for supporting “such divisive ideologies”, Jaitley said, “A strange situation is developing today. A new era has started where some group or other wants to organise functions in memory of Afzal Guru or Yakub Memon.” He said the present stance of the Congress of supporting such groups depicts its “ideological bankruptcy”.

Describing these groups as a medley of “a few jehadis and a large section of Maoists”, Jaitley said it is extremely unfortunate that Congress leaders are going and sympathizing with those who are raising anti-national slogans and talking about breaking the country. Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Jaitley said, “even Gandhiji, Nehru, Dr Ambedkar, Indira ji and Rajiv would not have ever done so.”

Accusing the communists of being “anti-democracy”, the finance minister said, “Historically they have always raised slogans of independence in their attempts to disrupt democratic setups by use of violence”. Recalling Dr B R Ambedkar’s speech in the Parliament on Nov 25, 1949, when he tabled the draft of the Constitution of India, Jaitley said, “even Dr Bhimrao stated that this Constitution would be acceptable to all political parties, except the Communists, as the very basis of this document is democracy.”

Maintaining that historically, despite ideological differences all major political parties in India, except the Communists and the left, were connected through the common ideology of nationalism, Jaitley said, “whenever there was an issue of national security or interest, all political parties used to stand together.” He said barring the brief stint during emergency when the CPI had supported the Congress, the latter was opposed to the communists.

He recalled that it was the Communists who had blamed India of attacking China during the 1962 war, even though the facts were to the contrary. “To speak against the Country is nothing new for the Communists”, he said while regretting that Congress leaders were now standing by them.

Jaitely said BJP’s massive victory in the 2014 elections was a vote for a decisive and clear leadership and against UPA’s corruption and Congress’s dynastic rule. “Thus we have three main responsibilities to fulfill for the country – freedom from dynastic rule; freedom from corruption and freedom from poverty and hunger,” he said adding that the BJP was working full steam in this direction.

The finance minister recounted Jan Dhan Yojna, Crop Insurance for farmers and Health Insurance for weaker sections, as some of the major achievements of Modi’s government. He said in 21 months of this government there has not been a single case of corruption, depriving the Congress of any talking points.

