THE INDIAN Prime Minister warned yesterday on the eve of the second round of general elections that India would face anarchy if Hindu nationalists came to power.
Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao (74) told a campaign rally that the country's secular fabric would be threatened if the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian People's Party) won the staggered vote which began on Saturday.
Since the BJP has fundamental differences with the long tested constitution, the party will scrap it," the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted him as saying.
"There will be anarchy and confusion in the country if the BJP came to power in Delhi. The BJP can never form a government as it is basically anti secular."
The BJP has emerged as a serious threat to Mr Rao's Congress (I) party. The BJP president, Mr Lal Krishna Advani, predicted yesterday it would obtain a "working majority" in the 545 seat Lok Sabha, lower house of parliament. Opinion polls have forecast that the BJP will finish as the largest party but without enough seats to form a government on its own.
"No party other than the Congress can provide a stable and cohesive government at the centre" said Mr Rao, harping on his pet theme.
Mr Rao's hard hitting speech came a day ahead of the second round of voting. Nearly 100 million Indians voted on Saturday and 223 million people are eligible to vote today in 17 states and federal territories for 204 members of the Lok Sabha. The final day of balloting is scheduled for next Tuesday.
Millions of Muslim voters in the western Indian state of Maharashtra are the key to stopping the juggernaut of Hindu fundamentalism from rolling across the state. All parties concede Maharashtra's 5.2 million Muslim voters can decisively tilt the electoral outcome in at least 12 of 48 parliamentary seats.
The prospect of the rabidly anti Islamic, Shiv Sena BJP Hindu fundamentalist coalition, which forms the coalition government in the state, also winning a majority of the parliamentary seats, terrifies Maharashtra's 88 million Muslims, living in constant fear of pogroms like the one three years ago in which 1,200 people died.
