HVK Archives: BJP has reservations about Congress, UF stand
BJP has reservations about Congress, UF stand - The Observer
Observer Political Bureau
()
8 April 1997
Title : BJP has reservations about Congress, UF stand
Author : Observer Political Bureau
Publication : The Observer
Date : April 8, 1997
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday launched a scathing attack
against the United Front and the Congress for their "naked lust for
power by subverting popular mandate" and mounted a campaign that
appears calculated to widen the rift between the two political
formations.
As a strategy, the BJP also continued to maintain relative
ambiguity on its precise action on the April 11 confidence vote in
the Lok Sabha and was carrying on preparations for snap mid-term
polls.
"We are keeping our options open," BJP general secretary M Venkaiah
Naidu said while addressing the daily press briefing. He
added-'that the BJP cadres had been directed to be prepared for
fresh general elections. "We are going ahead with preparations for
general elections, regardless of the outcome of April 11," the BJP
leader said.
Taking the "pseudo-secular" leaders to task for their hypocritical
turnarounds, Mr Naidu said that "after daring the Congress to
withdraw support, the UF leaders from Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda
onwards to regional chieftains like Chandrababu Naidu are now
grovelling before the Congress. This change of attitude of the
Front leaders is purely out of their lust for power."
Mr Gowda and other UF leaders were now 'swallowing' the insults
heaped by Congress president Sitaram Kesri and appealing to him to
reconsider his decision on support to the UF Government, the BJP
general secretary said in an attempt to highlight the "hypocritical
turnaround" by the Front leaders.
The fight between the Congress and the UF had become personal, Mr
Venkaiah Naidu said, adding that "politics has been reduced to
unrestrained personal abuse."
If on the one plane the Front leaders were appealing to the
Congress, on the other they had launched a politics of 'blackmail,'
Mr Naidu said.
Quoting his own sources, the BJP general secretary said that the UF
was collecting evidences to frame other Congress leaders in
criminal cases in an attempt to blackmail.
Similar accusations were made by leader of Opposition Atal Behari
Vajpayee in his address to the BJP national executive meet on
Sunday, when he said that the Government was contemplating 103
cases against the Congress leaders.
"The United Front is active behind the scenes," to pursue politics
of blackmail, Mr -Venkaiah Naidu said, adding that the Government
no longer gave importance to governance.
Due to its preoccupation with survival, the Government had stopped
governance and had been ignoring the plight of the people. The
Government neither had a plan nor the intention to deal with the
truckers' strike, which had resulted in an upward price spiral of
essential commodities, the BJP leader alleged.
Administration and governance had come to standstill because the
"pro-poor" Government did not have the time to look into the
people's grievances. The people were now paying the, price for the
antics of a "pro-people Government," Mr Venkaiah Naidu said.
Because of their antics, India had also become a laughing stock
internationally, he alleged.
"Yet, the Congress and the United Front may come together at the
eleventh hour," the BJP leader said. 'It was precisely for this
reason that the BJP would weigh its options till the very last
moment before finalising its action inside the Lok Sabha on April
11, he added.
"But the BJP will never bail out the Government as this Government
never governed the country properly," he said.
The party had already issued a three-line whip to all its Lok Sabha
members to be present in the House on April 11 and vote according
to the party directive.
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