By IANS,
New Delhi : Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani Friday said the gloom and pessimism which he was seeing all around the country due to the financial crisis will turn into optimism if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were elected back to power.
Fresh from a meeting with top industrialists barely 24 hours earlier, Advani, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate, said the present ruling coalition had inherited a 8.5 percent economic growth but will demit office with no more than seven percent economic expansion.
“We shall take all those measures necessary to reinstate the confidence of the people within six months,” said the senior BJP leader, adding this was the response to those who were asking him what his immediate priorities would be.
“My immediate duty will be to take a series of measures which can dissipate the pessimism and remove all the gloom and regenerate hope and optimism,” he said, adding the three main areas of concern that would be addressed were agriculture, security and inflation.
Advani also reiterated what he told top industrialists Thursday – that he was deeply concerned that the economic slowdown was creating insecurity and fear among the poor and the middle classes.
“The point I wish to make is that a nation’s economy is like its eco-system. If there is a fire in the forest, it not only burns the trees but also endangers birds, insects and micro-organisms. Therefore, we must quickly put down this fire called the economic crisis,” he said during the two-hour meeting with the industrialists.