By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal : Leader of the Opposition in the Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha – Lower House) and Senior Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), leader L.K. Advani has called upon his partymen to expose falsehood of Congress, which is leading the coalition Federal Government, on the 123 Indo-US nuclear deal.
Advani addressing the National Executive meeting of the BJP, which concluded here on Sunday, said Congress is indulging in the dangerous game of self-destabilisation of the UPA government. It is trying to put the blame for it on others, and then try to seek a mandate from the people on the basis of a lie ¯ namely, that the Congress alone wants India’s development, that it alone is committed to India’s energy security, and all others are creating hurdles in the way by opposing the nuclear deal.
Advani said the BJP must firmly counter this false, mischievous and self-serving propaganda.
He said:”Our party is not opposed to India’s energy security. How can we be, when we are wedded to the goal of making India a Developed Nation, with accelerated economic growth that benefits one and all? We should tell the people how the Congress party is compromising India’s National Security by doggedly pursing a flawed and unequal ‘Energy Security’ deal with the United States”.
“We should educate the people on how the Congress leadership wants to undo the gains of Pokharan II by effectively agreeing to roll back and, ultimately, eliminate India’s nuclear capability”, he emphasized.
He claimed BJP is for a strong and self-respecting India while Congress is for a weak and subservient India. In contrast, both UPA chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh opposed Pokharan II.
No wonder, they have succumbed to the US pressure to make India accept the NPT through the backdoor, even though every Indian Prime Minister from Indira Gandhi to Atal Bihari Vajpayee had refused to sign this discriminatory treaty, he pointed out.
A proud and self-respecting nation like India should never accept such infringement of our
sovereignty. India is not like Pakistan, which has mortgaged its sovereignty to America, Advani declared.
He said the common man may not fully understand the technicalities of the nuclear deal ¯ the 123 agreement, the Hyde Act, etc. Nevertheless, the BJP should go on the offensive by telling our patriotic people ¯ for even ordinary Indians understand the language of patriotism ¯ that the Congress wants to weaken India’s security and sovereignty whereas the BJP wants to protect and further strengthen them.
He said the BJP wants friendly relations with America ¯ but on equal terms. The BJP wants to catch the Nuclear Energy Bus ¯ but without getting off from the Nuclear Weapons Bus. The BJP wants India to soon become a Major Global Power as one of the poles of a Multi-Polar World.
While in contrast, the Congress is willing to accept ties with America on unequal terms. The
Congress is willing to get down the Nuclear Weapons Bus to accept a seat on the Nuclear Energy Bus as a favour from Big Power. The Congress wants India to become a subordinate power in an essentially Unipolar World, he charged.
He said there are two destabilizing forces that have emerged within the ruling coalition. The first is the group of four Left parties, whose outside support is oxygen for the survival of the government. The second is the DMK, whose leader has conducted himself in so unbecoming a manner in the Ram Sethu matter that it has truly no parallel in the history of Indian democracy.
As a matter of fact, there is also a third one ¯ and that is the Congress itself. The instability that has arisen at the Centre is primarily because of the Congress party, he added.
Continuing Advani said firstly, the government became unstable because of the inflexible,
indefensible and undemocratic stand taken by the Congress with regard to the Indo-US nuclear cooperation deal. Far from taking the nation into confidence and Parliament into confidence on an issue as vital as this, the leadership of the Congress party or the government could not even convince their own key allies.
And, yet, the government seems hell-bent on going ahead with the nuclear deal. This is simply unacceptable. Everybody knows that the government has no mandate in Parliament to operationalise a deal that has been opposed by (a) the BJP and our allies in the NDA; (b) parties in the UNPA; and (c) the Left parties, he pointed out.
Advani charged that the Congress leadership wants to go ahead with the deal since it does not believe in democracy and has no commitment to coalition dharma either. It knows that the government could fall because of its stand-off with the Left parties. It is sticking to its stand on the nuclear deal in spite of this knowledge, in the hope that it would emerge victorious with a larger strength in the Lok Sabha.
He said the Congress party has destabilized the UPA government also by its blunder in the Ram Sethu issue. It was not an innocent blunder. Rather, it was the natural outcome of a systematic perversion of ‘secularism that the Congress leadership has been carrying out, in its tirade against the BJP. Although Dr. Karunanidhi’s remarks have added fuel to the fire,
the question is: Who started the fire? Who was responsible for directing its counsel in the Ram Setu case to file the blasphemous affidavit in the Supreme Court?
The Congress leadership withdrew the affidavit only because of the spirited protest registered by the BJP and many other organizations. But this does not constitute sufficient amends. Both the Prime Minister and the UPA Chairman owe an apology to the nation for this affidavit. Why hasn’t responsibility been fixed on the culture and law ministers, he questioned?
He said “Aam aadmi” (common man) and kisans (farmers) will teach the Congress-led UPA Government a lesson.
He recalled India has seen a number of Lok Sabha elections in the past which have been practically single issue elections. The 1977 election was one which was decided just by the voters’ answer to one question: what do you think of the Emergency? A series of succeeding elections were decided by the following key issues:1980 : Janata Party’s infighting; 1984 : Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s assassination; 1989 : Bofors Scandal
All the Lok Sabha elections, that followed Tenth General Election of 1991, the Eleventh of 1996, the Twelfth of 1998 were influenced by the Ayodhya issue, he admitted.
The NDA Government of 1998 did not last long but that brief tenure of 13th months saw Pokharan II and a credible promise of a Development oriented Good Government. In 1999, therefore, NDA got a renewed mandate.
The UPA Government assumed office in 2004. The victory was won in the name of the “Aam Aadmi”. However, the “Aam Aadmi” today feels extremely betrayed – particularly because of the spiralling prices of all essential commodities.
But prices aren’t going to be the only issue on which the UPA Government would be in the dock in the impending Lok Sabha elections. Unlike in earlier elections, the Fifteenth Elections are going to be a multiple-issue election. To mention a few : (i) Farmers Suicides, (ii) Dismal failure on the Internal Security front : Repeal of POTA ; Afzal & Madani cases; Massive infiltration from Bangladesh; Serious Naxalite problem, (iii) Ram Setu, (iv) Nuclear Agreement, (v) Corruption e.g. Quattrocchi, (vi) Devaluation of PM’s office, (vii) To all the above issues the opportunistic nature of the UPA has made Stability a vital question. If NDA
was a model alliance, the UPA has been a model of what an alliance should notbe like. With such a huge majority of UPA Government seems about to go in less than four years. These are the wages of opportunism and (viii) Government’s failure to conduct foreign policy in a manner as to prevent the rise of anti-India forces in neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The UPA Govt’s failure to fight terrorism is self-willed. That the government has no clear policy to fight terrorism is absolutely clear. When the Prime Minister, under foreign pressure, announces India’s willingness to have a joint anti-terror mechanism with Pakistan, no further proof of its muddled thinking is needed, Advani said with contempt.
“But the UPA government’s culpability is greater than what is indicated by lack of clarity. Our charge is that it has no will to counter terrorism with a firm hand because of its misplaced fear of losing minority votes”, he alleged.
The UPA’s politics of minorityism has become a major hurdle in India’s fight against terrorism. “I charge the government with communalizing India’s campaign against terrorism”.
A government that has betrayed the “aam aadmi”, a government that has failed on the internal security front, a government that has no concern for India’s national unity, a government that is determined to undo India’s nuclear capability, and a government whose ministers are neck-deep in corruption, has no right to continue in office.
“I have no doubt that the people will vote it out in the next elections”, he fondly hoped, adding, from Bhopal to battlefront: With unity, determination and discipline. ([email protected])