The Hindu : Party and Govt. have to deliver: Jaitley

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 03, 2002

National

National

Party and Govt. have to deliver: Jaitley

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI JULY 2. Putting a "spin'' on events can no longer fetch a rich harvest of votes and the Bharatiya Janata Party will have to ensure that both the party and its Government "deliver'' and that in the real world facts match with claims, the new Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson, Arun Jaitely, said today during his first interaction with the Press after taking charge of his new job.

The task of reorganising the party and re-energising it to make it a "live wire'' had become urgent, especially after the poor electoral performance by the party in the last round of Assembly elections covering Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab and Manipur. And looking ahead of the crucial round of Assembly elections next year, the central leadership wanted to give party affairs "primacy'' and the importance they deserve.

Party leaders will have to be active, there was need to effectively take to the people the many plus points of the Vajpayee Government — according to him, the latest of these was the standoff with Pakistan where "a war was won without firing a single bullet'' — and although Yashwant Sinha has been moved out of the Finance Ministry after strong criticism of his performance from the BJP, Mr. Jaitley today pointed out that in the last two quarters the economy was looking up and he had steered it through the world economic crisis when India notched the second highest growth rate. All these "facts'' would have to be brought home to the people effectively.

Although neither the critics nor the supporters of the party would agree, Mr. Jaitley insisted today that not only did the BJP remain "a party with a difference'' but would become a "party with a greater difference''.

However, he did concede that no longer would the party be able to get votes by "putting a spin'' on events. The people could not be fooled and the party and the Government "will have to deliver''.

He did not think that Mamata Banerjee and her party, Trinamool Congress, staying out of the Government was a major problem. In fact, he was confident it would be resolved soon.

On the recent changes in the Cabinet, he was wary saying that he was not competent to speak on them.

Changes in the party leadership at the State-level could happen, but not immediately, he hinted. First, attention would be paid to setting up the central party office with new office-bearers, which would be done immediately after the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, returned here from Andhra Pradesh on July 6.

His view was that the party must become more active, improve its man-management, maintain live contact with people and with Government, draw up programmes of activity among people and gear up the party machine for the next electoral round.

Although it has been announced now that the planned `Gujarat gaurav yatras' (road shows declaring Gujarat is proud of itself) in the State are to be cancelled, earlier the BJP — notwithstanding the warning by the National Human Rights Commission that these could again ignite communal passions and lead to renewed violence — defended the programme saying it was a "political campaign'' and part of democratic party activity.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National