| |
| |
| «« Back |
 |
HVK Archives: BJP sharpens demand for fresh polls
BJP sharpens demand for fresh polls - The Hindu
Posted By Ashok V Chowgule (ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
Mon, 21 Apr 97 17:26:11 EDT
> Title : BJP sharpens demand for fresh polls
> Author : K V Lakshmana
> Publication : The Observer
> Date : April 21, 1997
>
> With the chances of installation of an alternative United Front Government
> increasing following the consensus on Mr I K Gujral, the Bharatiya Janata
> Party began sharpening its demands for fresh elections.
>
> A BJP delegation headed by leader of the Opposition and former Prime
Minister
> Atal Behari Vajpayee and party president L K Advani met President Shanker
> Dayal Sharma on Sunday night and reiterated its demand for fresh elections
as
> the UF coalition, supported by the Congress and the Communist Party of
> India-Marxist was defeated on the floor of the House.
>
> In a crowded press conference on Saturday, Mr Vajpayee demanded dissolution
> of the 11th Lok Sabha and mid-term elections to give the people a chance to
> give a political party a clear-cut mandate to rule the country.
>
> Since even a Government headed by Mr Gujral had in-built instability,
> indications of which were signalled by the pullout by the Tamil Maanila
> Congress, "mid-term elections are the only solution" to the political
crisis
> triggered off by the Congress, he said.
>
> Taking the cue from Mr Vajpayee, a host of second-rung BJP leaders on
Sunday
> urged the President to desist from inviting "the squabbling UF" to form the
> Government. Instead, they asked the President to order fresh elections.
BJP
> general secretary Sushma Swaraj made this demand from Chandigarh, where she
> has gone to monitor the party's preparations for mid-term polls.
>
> Asserting that support to the Government from outside did not ensure
> stability, Mr Vajpayee said that it was instead an "iron-clad guarantee of
> prolonged and expensive instability." Secondly, a minority Government
easily
> lost the confidence of the majority of the people in the country, he added.
>
> Mr Vajpayee described as "immoral and unconstitutional " UF's efforts to
> install another ministry with the Congress again offering "support from
> outside." He said that the fact that there would be a new man in the Prime
> Minister's chair was irrelevant. "The vote of confidence was not about an
> individual called H D Deve Gowda. It was about the acts of commission and
> commission of the UF as a whole," he said.
>
> "Gifting the UF another chance to misgovern is unprecedented, unethical and
> unacceptable" in the face of every convention of parliamentary democracy,"
he
> said.
>
> The President "risks mortgaging the future if he ignores these lessons of
the
> past," Mr Vajpayee said, recounting the past failures of the past
experiments
> of governments with outside support.
>
> "Today, development work has come to stand still and an early decision on
the
> issue will be in the national interest," Mr Vajpayee, flanked by Mr Advani
> and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, said. He denied that
> BJP was demanding dissolution only because it had failed to garner support
of
> the regional parties for forming the Government and said, "this impression
is
> baseless and we have been demanding dissolution from day one. "
>
> "I did not stake claim to form the Government when I met the President on
> Thursday, nor he invited me for the same," Mr Vajpayee said, adding that
> "though elections were a costly affair, but political stability was more
> important. "
>
> Mr Vajpayee and other BJP leaders, however, said that their party was
> prepared to cooperate for possible "financial arrangements" under the
> caretaker Government, but there was no question of support to any new
> Government to adopt the Finance Bill. He said that on the proposed National
> Democratic Front, consultations with the party's allies were on.
>
> Cautioning the President against installation of another shaky coalition,
Ms
> Swaraj said in Chandigarh that "the experiment, which failed a week ago is
> being repeated and imposed upon the country. The new arrangement would be
> more unstable and would not last long," she said.
>
> Urging the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha and hold mid-term elections,
> she said that her party had made it clear to the President that "imposition
> of unstable Government was not in the interest of the nation."
>
> The BJP spokesperson said that while the BJP and its allies formed a
cohesive
> group with Mr Vajpayee as its "undisputed" leader, the UF was "a divided
> house with five ambitious leaders as prime ministers."
>
> Another important BJP leader O Rajgopal said that the BJP and its allies
> would meet on Monday to finalise future course of action in the wake of Mr
> Gujral's election as new leader of UF parliamentary party.
>
> Mr Vajpayee and other BJP leaders, who termed the defeat of the vote of
> confidence as "collective failure of the United Front," insisted that it
was
> immoral and unconstitutional to reinstate a group that had just lost the
> confidence of the House.
>
> He said that there was an imbalance built into any government that stood
upon
> support from the outside. "A party may offer a helping hand to another, it
> can not offer a helping leg," Mr Vajpayee said.
>
> Commenting on the Congress' position in the ongoing political turmoil, Mr
> Vajpayee said he had told the President that "a proposed Government based
on
> the politics of make and break and without any principles, will be even
more
> weak. How would this fulfill the responsibility of providing a stable
> Government."
>
> Decrying the maneouvering by the UF and the Congress to retain power, the
BJP
> leader regretted that even Parliament and the President were being used as
> "pawns."
>
> He said that political leaders and parties should have the moral courage to
> go to the court of people. "Elections are costly, but the price to be paid
> for instability and indecision is even greater," Mr Vajpayee added to
justify
> his party's demand for fresh elections.
>
>
>
>
Back
Top
|
|
| «« Back |
| |
|
|
|
|
