Date:30/12/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/12/30/stories/2003123003941100.htm

National

BJP a prisoner of its own propaganda: Congress

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 29 . The Congress today said the Bharatiya Janata Party was becoming a prisoner of its own propaganda that as soon as it took a stand on advancing the Lok Sabha polls, two of its allies, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) moved away.

The Congress said the moves by these parties proved the fact that the Vajpayee Government did not follow the coalition dharma and that the allies had been taken for a ride with the BJP pursuing its own "communal agenda" ignoring the one outlined by the NDA.

Commenting on the development, the Congress chief spokesperson, S. Jaipal Reddy, said that the BJP was not in a position to convince people about its commitment to follow a larger agenda and ridiculed the party for talking about a "non-existent feel-good factor."

The BJP spokesman, Prakash Javdekar, described the MDMK move as "painful" but asserted that it would not affect the stability of the NDA Government.

Elaborating on the BJP's "feel-good factor," Mr. Reddy said it existed only in the social circuit and not the masses and relied on statistics of key economic sectors to drive home its point. He said that the investment climate in the country had deteriorated over the last five years. For instance, investments in the power, telecom, road, ports and railways sectors had come down substantially.

Mr. Reddy said that in the power sector, if the investment was Rs. 4, 000 crores in 1999, it was down to Rs. 3,600 in 2003. In telecom it was down by Rs. 600 crores, and by Rs. 450 crores in ports/road/railways during the corresponding period. This overall decline in investment had affected the growth rate and employment generation.