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February 2009

 

 

 

BJP National Spokesperson Shri Prakash Javadekar, MP

Friday 20th February 2009
in Press Conference at Parliament House

Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Shri Khurshid M Kasuri's revelation, about back channel negotiations between Pakistan and India are serious. He had revealed that both countries were close to working out the outline of a solution to Kashmir and reached an understanding on disengagement of Siachen while discussing demilitarization on both sides of Line of Control. He also revealed that there was substantial understanding reached on a Joint Mechanism that would have representatives from the two countries besides both sides of divided Kashmir.

BJP views these revelations as not only a back channel diplomacy but backstabbing of the country and compromising sovereignty of India by the UPA government.

Disengagement in Siachen is long pending demand of Pakistan. The geophysical reality is against any such withdrawal, as it puts India into to disadvantage like Kargil. In Siachen India is on top while Pakistan is on planes. If India withdraws from Siachen, any future mischief by Pakistan will create a replay of Kargil like situation.

Proposal of demilitarisation of Kashmir is fraught with disastrous consequences. There is already network of Pakistan through terrorists and separatists which will have field day in the valley in such an eventuality.

Understanding on a Joint Mechanism is worst, as it tacitly accepts that the Kashmir valley is not integral part of India. The nature suggested in Joint Mechanism is more disastrous as POK and Kashmir would have got separate representation along with India and Pakistan.

BJP had warned earlier about such back channel diplomacy. What is curious is that UPA government is completely silent on such a vital interview of former Foreign Minister of Pakistan.

BJP condemns UPA government efforts to compromise territorial integrity and sovereignty, which violets even the oath of office. The UPA government has made substantive concessions through this back channel diplomacy. What is worse is that the parliament and people are kept in dark. Country was anxious to know the protracted negotiations which some time seemed meaningless. It is now clear that conclusions were concealed. This is the example of how now to conduct diplomacy.

BJP demands immediate explanation from the government.


 

Brief points of the speech made by Shri Arun Jaitley (BJP)
on the motion of thanks to the President

The President’s speech is nothing more than a mere Dhobi list of the Government’s programmes. It is a self-congratulatory exercise. It shows that the Government is living in denial of the serious crisis that confronts the Indian State. The address fails to respond to the challenges to the national economy and security. It lacks the direction that it supposed to give to the Nation.

Leadership

The Nation is in the midst of a serious crisis. The national economy is in a mess. The economic crisis looms large. Threats to India’s security have made it vulnerable. The Nation, therefore, needs an inspirational leadership – a leadership that is determined and decisive. While we wish the Prime Minister a speedy recovery, I regret that the Prime Minister and the Government in this hour of crisis have failed to provide inspirational leadership. The Prime Minister in a democracy is the highest repository of Executive power. He is accountable to the Nation. He is intended to provide direction and inspiration in a crisis. As a leader he must lead. Leadership is the art of decision-making; leadership is not the art of survival through non decision-making. Unfortunately, for the Prime Minister he was never the first choice of his party to lead the Nation. Even currently, the emphasis is on the heir apparent of one family. The Prime Minister is merely a stop gap arrangement in a stop gap job. The Prime Minister of world’s largest democracy cannot be a night watchman. He should be in a position to command both the Party and the Nation. Here the Prime Minister has become invisible. For 4½ years, the Left disrupted Government decision making. The Prime Minister used non-decision making as the art of survival. Today, several of the ally partners have started dreaming of becoming Prime Minister. The country is left leaderless and rudderless.

Security

Events of the last few years have reinforced the idea of India as a soft State. The threat to India’s national security did not commence on 9/11. It has existed for almost two decades. Our security apparatus therefore to be hard. Unfortunately, the UPA linked it to the vote banks. In order to consolidate its vote banks it referred to the anti terrorism measures as being anti-minority. It conveniently forgot that terrorism is religion neutral. Some terror groups are inspired by religion but all terror groups attack the sovereignty and integrity of India.

The UPA’s culpability was that it lowered the security guard. When elections were held in Maoist inflicted States like Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand it actively collaborated with them. It entrapped the Nation in a false propaganda that an anti terror law was per se anti-minority The Intelligence network in the country was weakened; its coordination was poor. The security responses in a terrorist attack were weak. The terrorists were killed within minutes and hours at the Parliament and Akshardham when the attacks took place. But presently, even after months and years we are unable to unravel the terror strikes.

For 4½ years, the UPA argued that no special laws were required to create a legal infrastructure against terror. The national resolve against terrorism was weakened.

Our foreign policy erred on the anti-terror front. The Prime Minister described Pakistan as a victim of terror. Representatives of even friendly countries started endorsing the Pakistani stand that unless root cause and the core issue of Kashmir was resolved, terrorism would continue. Our excessive dependence on various countries to pressurize Pakistan indicated that friendship was becoming subordination. Let us not gloat over the fact that Pakistan had had to admit that 26/11 was planned from its soil. Will any Pakistani investigation have the honesty to admit the involvement of State actors and the ISI in 26/11? Today the upper hand that Taliban is acquiring in Pakistan with the Talibanisation of the Swat valley is a direct threat to India and the Region. These developments need an emphatic response from the Government.

Twenty million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have settled in India. Anti India organisaions like HUJI have made Bangladesh their base. Even on his, we have lowered the guard. The Supreme Court has twice struck down the IMDT Act and the Amendments to the Foreigner’s Control Order because they were infiltration friendly. However, we have not improved the situation. There seems to be no let down in the Maoist activity which has engulfed 170 Districts of this country.

State of Economy

The UPA inherited a booming economy. Today it is set to leave the country in debt. The Prime Minister and his core group were referred to as the Dream Team of the Economy. Today, the Nation is having hallucinations of a horror dream in the economic management of the country. It is only when the going was good that the UPA was it its best; when the going was tough the incompetence of the UPA became visible. Its failure is clear on the various fronts. The Consumer Price Index is still high. Despite global recession reduction in global food prices and a record harvest in India food grain inflation in India is more than 11%. Our inability to deal with the slow down is because of Government’s short sightedness. India did not face a sub prime crisis or collapse of financial institutions. When these indications were available in the US, we showed shortsightedness in squeezing the liquidity in the domestic market in order to reduce inflation. The slow down was at our doorstep and we were reducing our own liquidity. With no money left in the market, real estate, manufacturing, trading were all set to slow down. Stimulus packages alone will not work. The 65 trillion dollar global economy has not been stimulated by 12 trillion dollar packages. Today, India faces low growth rate; low tax buoyancy low tax collection, lower market sentiment, lower stock markets, decline in exports, manufacturing, closure of units and job losses. The slow down will cost India once one crore jobs. Despite this, the UPA government continues to live in denial. It appears to believe that a do nothing approaches is the only approach under the circumstances.

The Government need to prime up the economy – There must be huge infrastructure expenditure by the State. You need to rationalise both interest rates and taxes in order to make more money available with the people. But all our flagship programmes are suffering under the UPA. The National Highway is a victim of the UPA indifference. Contracts under the Golden Quadriangle (GQ) awarded by the NDA have shown that the GGQ is almost 97.46% complete but what about the rest. The North-South East-West corridor is less than 40% complete. There is a slow down in the rural roads. CAG audit into the NERG programme shows that only 14% of the people have received full 100 days payment.

The farmer’s suicides continue in the country. There is no respite to the farmer. The 1½ month of year 2009 have shown that suicides in Vidarbha continue unabated.

Constitutional and Democratic institutions

The Congress was never a respect of the Institutions. Tainted ministers were inducted into the Cabinet with an effort to exonerate them from the cases. CBI lawyers were changed, judges were shifted, special benches of the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal created, sanctions refused for prosecution. Today, the UPA has a minister who is charged with murder.

The CBI has been grossly abused and discredited depending on the support required from the Samajwadi Party and the BSP. Cases against their leaders are either activated or tapered down depending on the support required. The UPA is a government which displayed its majority in Parliament through purchase of votes and then subverted the parliamentary system by using its brutal majority to declare its innocence. The recent statements of the Samajwadi Party General Secretary that the UP Governor was instrumental in mobilization of Samajwadi Party support for the Congress shows the extent to which the Raj Bhavans have been politicized. The latest target of the UPA is the Election Commission. Even in the matter of Election Commission, efforts are being made to make appointments of politically inclined and attached persons. The recommendations of the Chief Election Commissioner which should be binding on the government are being disregarded.

Sir, the UPA government is about to complete its term. It does not measure up when the need is to prime up the economy. It fails miserably when the need is to secure India; the UPA tries to secure itself by subverting institutions. The President’s address does not deal with any of these issues.



If BJP wins, India wins: LK Advani
16 Feb 2009, 0719 hrs IST, TNN


GORAKHPUR: "There's no country in the world where constitutional head of government was reduced to this level. What we have is not Manmohan Raj but
Sonia Raj," said BJP's PM candidate L K Advani at the Rashtriya Raksha and Vijay Sankalp rally here on Sunday. He also said, "If BJP, India wins."

"I've seen all the PMs since Nehru but the post was never so degraded as by Manmohan Singh. What would be the fate of the country if the same man becomes PM after the next general elections?" he asked.



Shri Jaswant Singh, Shri Yashwant Sinha and Shri Arun Shourie

Feb. 15, 2009

The Interim Budget documents confirm that the UPA Government has grossly failed to live up to the promises it had made in the Common Minimum Programme; that its claims in successive budgets have been, as we have been warning all along, wholly fabricated; and that it is guilty of grossly mismanaging both the economy and governmental finances.

Mr Pranab Mukherji has listed the seven objectives that Mr. P.Chidambaram had spelled out in his first budget, and claimed that the Government has fulfilled.

In fact,

1. Far from placing the economy on a path of sustained growth of 7% to 8%, it is leaving the economy with a significant slowdown – a slowdown that started as soon as the momentum created by the NDA ran out; a slowdown that has been caused by its mismanagement, a mismanagement it is trying to cover up by invoking the international economic crisis;

2. As far as “education and health” is concerned, the UPA had promised to spend at least 6% of GDP on education and 3% of the GDP on health. It even imposed a cess of 2% on all taxes to collect revenue for education. In fact, the outlays are nowhere near the promised levels. Moreover, the manner in which this money has been spent has remained opaque and apart from continuing with the Sarva Shikshan Abiyan initiated by the NDA Government, this Government has done nothing further in this field.

3. Far from “generating gainful employment and promoting investment”, it is leaving behind an economy in which at least a crore of persons who till recently had jobs are now without work; and investment is collapsing all across the economy.

4. While the Government had promised to assure “hundred days of employment to the breadwinner in each family at the minimum wage”, its own report and those of the CAG show that in fact it is only in 14% of the cases that the promised days of employment have been provided; moreover, there have been widespread corruption and defalcation.

5. As for “focusing on agriculture, rural development and infrastructure” agricultural growth remained respectable only in the years in which there were good monsoons – far from ensuring the interests of the farmers, its policies have driven the farmers to suicide; in the 47 days of 2009 alone, there have been in Vidarbha alone 112 suicides by farmers - these are the very farmers whom the Finance Minister has described as “the real heroes of India’s success story”. Similarly, far from ensuring a focus on infrastructure, in fact the pace of infrastructure has been brought to a grinding slowdown – a fact which is exemplified by the pathetic condition to which the National Highway Programme has been reduced: the project completion rate of this programme has fallen from 81% in 2004-05 to just around 50% now.

6. The claim about “accelerating fiscal consolidation and reform”, is by now known by all to be farcical: in the Common Minimum Programme the UPA had pledged to eliminating the revenue deficit of the centre by 2009, so as to release more resources for investments in social and physical infrastructure”; in fact, even the Finance Minister is admitting that the revenue deficit this year will be 4.4% of the GDP and fiscal deficit will be 6% of GDP. The Finance Minister however is not telling the truth even in the interim budget. The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, in a report published in January 2009, has estimated that the fiscal deficit will be at least 8% of the GDP. According to us, even this is an under-estimation. Given the massive shortfall in revenues, Government of India’s fiscal deficit will exceed 10% of GDP. Once the deficits of the states are added, the UPA period would have plunged the country into unprecedented fiscal crisis.

7. As for “ensuring higher and more efficient fiscal devolution”, the extent of devolution is determined by the Finance Commission; as for making the devolution more efficient, the UPA Government has done absolutely nothing at all.

The UPA Government claims to have ruled the country for the last five years in the name of the “Aam Admi” and yet it is the Aam Admi who has suffered the most during this regime because of its sheer mis-management of the economy. The Aam Admi has suffered like never before on account of unbridled price-rise of essential commodities which even today continue to rise in double digit, loss of livelihood, economic insecurity and insecurity of life and limb.

The interim budget has proved what we have been claiming all along namely that the budget presented by Shri P. Chidambaram on February 28, 2008 was a sham. That budget is in tatters today both on the expenditure as well as the revenue side. By under-funding various items of expenditure and not funding at all various others, he claimed the virtue of being within the FRBM targets. He and his Government stand totally exposed today.

As the country has already been pushed into a deep economic crisis, the elementary duty of the Government was to take strong and effective counter-measures. The statement of the Finance Minister shows that the UPA Government has completely abandoned its responsibilities.


Consensus at the Roundtable with Economists- Economy in a worse shape than govt accepts;
worst is yet to come

Shri Advani pledges :

Employment, more employment, and still more employment with Good Governance

New Delhi - 14th February, 2009

The state of the economy is worse than what is being made out by the UPA Government, and the worst is yet to come. This was the consensus at a roundtable with economists convened by Shri L.K. Advani, the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP and the NDA, at his residence this morning.

Several economists noted with disappointment that the authorities in India are still in denial mode with regard to the state of the economy. They pointed out that the overall national fiscal deficit has reached 13% of the GDP, which is an all-time high. They also opined that the Indian economy had entered into a crisis phase well before the meltdown in the global economy.

Many participants stated that the government did nothing when a speculative bubble was being formed in the stock market towards the end of 2007. Volatile short-term capital flows were not regulated as they ought to have been. Later, the draining out of liquidity from the system, and simultaneous raising of interest rates, not only did not succeed in checking inflation but also created a severe credit crunch that hit all sectors of the economy.

As a result, jobs are being slashed everywhere. While the number of job losses varies from 50 lakh to one crore, the participants said that accurate quantification is difficult since 90% of them are taking place in the informal and unorganized sectors of the economy.

Responding to this point, Shri Advani stated that, in the event of the NDA winning the mandate in the 2009 parliamentary elections, its highest priority in the field of economy would be “to create employment, more employment, and still more employment.” Indicating a radical shift in India’s development model, he said, “We shall ensure that agriculture, rural economy, small and medium enterprises, and the informal and unorganized sectors of the economy get their rightful place in the future strategy of India’s economic growth, whose central goal would be – Har haath ko kaam, Har khet ko paani (employment to every hand and water to every farm land).”

Shri Advani felt that labour laws have proved to be totally ineffective in protecting jobs and, therefore, needed a re-look.

The participants cautioned that unless concerted action is taken on fiscal, monetary and public investment fronts, the economic decline in the country could acquire serious proportions. They laid great stress on the need for good governance translating itself as a thorough reform in the government’s delivery mechanisms, so that corruption is checked and schemes are implemented effectively. They also emphasized the need for judicial reforms in cases relating to the economy, administrative reforms to remove bureaucratic hurdles and drastic improvement in the ease of doing business in India.

Several participants lamented that major infrastructure development projects, such as the National Highway Development Project, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the Delhi-Mumbai rail freight corridor project, etc, had stalled during the UPA rule. All these, and several other critical urban and rural infrastructure development projects, would need to be vigorously accelerated by the next government, they advised.

Many of them supported the BJP’s longstanding demand for a unique National Identity Card, which could be used effectively to reach the benefits of welfare schemes without leakages.

Several economists warned about the negative consequences of lack of reforms in education, which remains the most tightly regulated sector. They emphasized the need for a massive initiative on skill development to respond to changing needs of the economy. They proposed setting up of a large national fund for dissemination of new technologies into agriculture and SMEs.

All the participants were unanimous in stressing that the greatest crisis in the country was the crisis of confidence. The first task of any new government, they urged, would be to restore confidence by taking bold and quick decisions to revive the economy both in the immediate and long term.

This roundtable was in continuation of a series of consultations with experts in various aspects of governance and development initiated by Shri Advani in recent months. Senior BJP leaders Shri Jaswant Singh, Shri Yashwant Sinha, Smt. Sushma Swaraj and Shri Arun Jaitley also attended the meeting.

The list of participants is enclosed.

 


BJP National Executive meet in Nagpur today

Friday 06 February, 2009.

The BJP's National Executive and National Council meets in Nagpur on Friday to prepare a roadmap and finetune strategies for the coming Lok Sabha elections as it searches for new allies to bolster the NDA led by the saffron party.

The three-day conclave of the main opposition party in this orange city in Maharashtra hopes to zero in on issues that could woo voters to give the mandate to help it regain power and make its stalwart L K Advani the next Prime Minister.

The mega events of the saffron party are considered crucial important as it provides the last chance for the party

to get its act together ahead of the polls and steer the National Democratic Alliance(NDA).

"The three-day meet would be a session dedicated to give directions to the party rank and file for the final Lok

Sabha polls preparation," party vice-president Muqtar Abbas Naqvi said.

But the party appears to be far from fighting fit given the desertion by senior leader Kalyan Singh whose contribution in the Ayodhya movement was only next to Advani.

Former Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has not helped the party or Advani either by announcing his plans to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's delayed explanation in the wake of his projection as the next Prime Minister by India Inc is another story.

While the National Executive of the party to be attended by around 200 delegates will be held tomorrow, the two-day National Council on Saturday and Sunday is likely to be attended by more than 5000 delegates.

The National Council would be attended by representatives right from the panchayat level and for the first time, elected block level leaders have been called. All the 'morchas' and cells will also be attending the conclave, Naqvi added.

Seeking to end its five years of political wilderness at the Centre, BJP is expected to pull out all stops to evolve a 'must win' strategy at the conclave, but doubts remain on how effective it could be in cobbling up a good combination.

The venue was significant as this Orange City is the headquarters of the RSS which the main opposition has always regarded as its 'fountain of inspiration'.

The BJP is going to polls at a time when its patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee is no longer active due to illness and has virtually handed over the mantle to Advani who is going the extra mile to 'win friends and influence people'.

However, the task is far from easy amid growing pulls and pressures from within the party and the opposition NDA it heads with allies seeking more seats and creating many a problem for the saffron party.(AM-05/01)