The Hindu : Make a new beginning, Vajpayee tells Modi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002

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Make a new beginning, Vajpayee tells Modi

By Neena Vyas

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, being felicitated by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan, at the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday. The party president, Venkaiah Naidu (extreme left), and the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, look on. — Photo: V. Sudershan

NEW DELHI DEC. 17. Will the Gujarat "formula'' be applied by the Bharatiya Janata Party in other States where elections are due next year?

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, who chaired the BJP parliamentary party meeting this morning, answered the question — uppermost in the minds of many people across the country — with a counter question. "Will Godhra be repeated elsewhere? That is what I will say to those who ask the question on the Gujarat formula,'' he told the party MPs. And then, he added "there should have been stronger criticism of Godhra from Muslims,'' suggesting that what followed in Gujarat was the result of a lack of strong criticism of Godhra.

The meeting was held in a celebratory mood. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan, distributed five ``laddoos'' to each MP, wishing electoral success in five States — Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — in the new year. In each of these, the BJP's direct rival would be the Congress which is in power in all the States, except Himachal (ruled by the BJP).

The five ``laddoos'' were all but a reminder of the party's 1993 slogan given by its then president, L. K. Advani — aaj panch pradesh, kal sara desh (five States to be won today, the whole country tomorrow) — which proved hollow as victory eluded the BJP even in its bastion, Uttar Pradesh. But the Gujarat win, by a two-thirds majority, has raised the party's expectations sky-high.

The BJP spokesman, V. K. Malhotra, who briefed the press later, said Mr. Vajpayee countered the Opposition's "analysis'' of the Gujarat results — that it was the result of communal tension in the State. In Rajasthan, the party had won all the three Assembly byelections, he noted, and there was no Godhra, no communal tension there. In short, the BJP sees a "trend'' which it hopes will last till the next Lok Sabha elections.

Mr. Vajpayee praised the Gujarat Government for countering the anti-incumbency factor and preventing hunger deaths in the State despite drought (unlike Rajasthan). He saw the results as people's approval of the BJP's development works in Gujarat.

(The Prime Minister said the results had clearly shown that people did not want the Congress, but asked his partymen not to be complacent, according to a PTI report. ``These elections have clearly shown that people don't want the Congress and because of this, the BJP's responsibility has increased.'' Asking the BJP cadre to analyse the Gujarat results in the coming national executive in the "right spirit," Mr. Vajpayee advised the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, to make a "new beginning" by carrying along even all those who were opposed to the BJP.)

The Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, reiterated that the people of Gujarat viewed the "false propaganda'' against Mr. Modi, the Gujarat Government and the bureaucracy as "an insult to Gujarat'' and voted for the BJP "with a vengeance."

He also criticised those who had propagated against the Gujarat Government abroad and added "we have never done this.''

And, finally, he agreed with the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, that the BJP would carry the party flag in one hand and the NDA agenda in the other (ek haath mein BJP jhanda, doosre mein NDA agenda), and remain committed to the ruling coalition's agenda.

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