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)
