BJP goes hammer and tongs at Gujral

The Bharatiya Janata Party national executive deplored the United Front government's ''shocking inaction'' in fighting corruption.

Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, the BJP said, has ''conclusively'' demonstrated that he is ''incapable of taking a principled stand''.

A vast gulf separates what the prime minister claims to be his belief -- that ''drastic action'' is called for to fight corruption -- and his masterly inaction in putting into practice this belief. Indeed, Gujral has excelled in the art of practising passivity even while preaching action, the BJP executive said, in a resolution after its two-day session in New Delhi.

Gujral ''owes'' his present parliamentary career to Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, the BJP said. He knows that if he takes any step towards combating corruption, he will lose the office which he owes to the support of those who are responsible for injecting the poison of corruption into ''the veins of the nation''.

It is because of this that Gujral sacked Central Bureau of Investigation chief Joginder Singh who pursued the fodder scam and the Bofors scandal. For the same reason he has refused to get rid of the three Laloo Yadav aides in his ministry.

The most glaring instance of the Gujral government's ''willing passivity'' was its refusal to act against Laloo Yadav even after he was chargesheeted by the CBI in the fodder scam.

The UF government will claim it has scored a big success by getting Laloo Yadav to demit office. However, his resignation is as much a sham as the installation of his wife as the chief minister. ''As the de facto chief minister of Bihar, he will continue with his reign of terror and intimidation. If his regime did not enjoy any credibility, the new arrangement lacks legitimacy,'' the BJP executive observed.

Therefore, the national executive resolved to continue the BJP's struggle against the regime.

It is ironical that the prime minister cannot claim with any degree of confidence that he commands the direct support of more than five per cent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha. Yet, he remains in office because it serves the interests of those who stand to gain from his inaction and passivity.

Leading ''this pack'' is the Left which has excelled in Orwellian doublespeak, the BJP alleged. Despite opposing Laloo Yadav on his home turf, the Left has constantly shied away from forcing the government's hands, the executive alleged.

Lashing out at the CPI-M's "unprincipled attitude," the BJP said the party has shown no compunction in collaborating with the Congress.

As for the other pillar of the ''secular forces,'' the Congress, the BJP said it has plumbed further depths of crass opportunism and struck bargains to protect its leaders from the law for their sins of omission and commission.

Fifty years ago, at the dawn of independence, the Congress dazzled the people with its stellar role in the freedom struggle. Fifty years later, it evokes nothing but contempt from the same people.

If the UF will go down in history for allowing the corrupt to go free, the Congress has gone down in history for allowing the corrupt to flourish.

Like the proverbial cat which went on a pilgrimage after killing a hundred rats, the Congress is demanding the sacking of the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra for the July 11 police firing, it alleged.

Those leading the chorus have conveniently forgotten that 130 Gowaris died a brutal death at the gates of the Maharashtra assembly in Nagpur. That hundreds were killed and many more maimed in vicious rioting and the serial bomb blasts, all during Congress rule, it said. The incidents occurred only three years ago. On that occasion, no tears were shed, nor was the demand that the chief minister should resign countenanced.

The BJP condemned the hostile campaign launched by the Congress and noted with concern that is the fourth time a statue of Dr B R Ambedkar has been desecrated on the eve of or during an assembly session. This is not entirely coincidental, but, the BJP alleged, a part of the Congress's desperate bid to regain power.

UNI

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