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Vajpayee tells cadre to prepare for one-to-one fights

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said on Sunday that India had a strong potential to become a powerful nation, and called for active support from all to rid the country of hunger and poverty.

In his concluding remarks to the two-day Bharatiya Janata Party national executive in New Delhi, Vajpayee said, "Our resources are immense and we have to solve the problems confronting the nation."

The prime minister said the country was passing through an era of coalitions, but it did not mean that this phenomenon would be perpetual. Regional parties have acquired a pivotal role but, at the same time, the strength of single parties at the national level will also increase in the future, he predicted.

The executive asked the cadre to be prepared for one-to-one contest, for which the party must expand its political-social base.

Vajpayee took the opportunity to pacify some senior partymen who could not be accommodated in his Cabinet. He said being in the government was not all, the government was not going to run the party. The party has to run the government, he explained.

The executive, which reviewed the outcome of the 12th Lok Sabha election, expressed satisfaction at the performance of the party which not only increased its tally in the Lok Sabha but also increased its vote percentage.

It took note of the causes forwarded by Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana for not doing well in the election. Some unpopular measures like bus fare hike and increase in power tariff were not taken well by the people in some states.

Certain other factors which have been identified included a new social combination, decimation of the Third Force in favour of the Congress, and the anti-incumbency factor.

While these states had been advised to take corrective measures, they had also been asked to ensure that the welfare steps taken by the government reached the grass-roots.

The two -page political resolution adopted at the executive meeting described how the BJP managed to secure the confidence vote with it pre-election allies this time while in 1996, "pseudo-secularists succeeded in ganging up" against it and preventing the 13-day Vajpayee government from securing a vote of confidence.

The Leftists did try once again to hijack the mandate in favour of the BJP and allies, but they failed miserably in their effort to cobble together yet another UF-Congress compact. Indeed, for all its straining, all that the left achieved was the break-up of a truncated UF, it said.

The resolution described the national agenda of the BJP-led government as a pro-active and pro-people document which emphasises the need for co-operation and consensus on all major national issues. The executive ''hailed'' the government's commitment to securing a broad national consensus on all contentious issues as that was the only way governance could be effective in ushering in social, political and economic changes and in implementing them.

According to the resolution, the immediate task of the government was to put on course India's national economy that had floundered over the last many years. There are other areas, for instance agriculture, infrastructure, social sector and internal security which were ''in crying need of the government's urgent attention.''

Addressing a rally after the conclusion of the two-day national executive of the party, Advani said the Bofors mystery had not been unravelled yet. ''The new government would get to the bottom of it.''

This is the first time that such a statement has been made by a senior leader of the party after coming to power at the Centre.

Advani said the government was committed to the national agenda which had been formed in consultation with the alliance partners. Each alliance partner had its own manifesto, but now it was the duty of the partner to keep aside its manifesto for the time being and make the national agenda a success.

He said the party was committed to solving the Ayodhya tangle peacefully and according to law, and scrapping Article 370. However, it was not in favour of snatching away the constitutional rights of Jammu and Kashmir. Even the uniform civil code had been mentioned in the Constitution, but the BJP's opponents had projected these issues in a distorted way as if the party was anti- Muslim.

He said these issues were projected as the BJP's ''hidden agenda'' by its opponents, and it was a conspiracy to weaken a strong and honest government.

Addressing the workers, Vajpayee said the party had not made any false promises to the people in its manifesto. The manifesto had ten principles to be followed by the party and these included removing corruption, illiteracy, hunger etc. These formed the national agenda and there was no difference between the party manifesto and the national agenda.

''We are tied up with the national agenda,'' he added.

Referring to various measures taken by his government, the prime minister said it was concerned about the welfare of the farming community. ''We have increased subsidy. They will be given more facilities and our effort is to ensure that they are not overburdened.'' Dearness allowance had been released for central government employees as well.

Housing remained another major problem, he said, and called upon the people to invest in the housing sector.

He said their opponents had left no stone unturned in labelling the BJP as ''fascist''. ''When they failed inside the country, they started projecting the party negatively outside the country as well. However, we have been successful in countering that propaganda also."

He said the government was also aware of the internal as well as external threats that the country was facing and would take effective steps to counter them.

UNI

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