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Advani: programme to regenerate optimism will top BJP agenda

CHENNAI: If the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance comes to power in the next general elections, the foremost item on its agenda would be to regenerate optimism in the country through a programme dealing with the economy and terrorism, according to BJP leader L.K. Advani.

In an interview with journalists from The Hindu during his visit to Chennai on Wednesday, Mr. Advani said the current mood in the country was one of despair.

“In our time, in our six years, there was confidence in the country. There was optimism. These last four-five years, because of inflation, because of terrorism, because of farmer suicides, then on top of that, the sickening, disgusting scandal in Parliament and now comes this global crisis, this economic crisis … all these have contributed to a sense of despair, frustration. So I have told some of my colleagues, ‘You first prepare a six-month programme which can regenerate optimism,’” he said.

While reviving the economy and dealing with terrorism would be top priority, the next item on that programme would be to take steps in the field of agriculture to make farmers feel this was a different government, said Mr. Advani.

He felt that the Indian political system had become a clearly bipolar system. “We may not have succeeded in converting India’s polity into a two-party system, but we have made it a bipolar polity…There was an attempt to form a third front, [but] there is no question of third front,” he said, pointing to the case of the V.P. Singh-led Janata Dal government, which was at one point supported by both the Marxists and the BJP.

“[There are] two poles, and all other parties, including the regional parties, have to opt between this and that,” he said.

Mr. Advani said regional parties had offered valuable alliances, allowing the BJP to extend its influence in the south, from its initial strongholds in the north and west.

“In Tamil Nadu, because of the alliance that we had, with one party at one time, another party at another time, we were able to make some headway,” he said.

While Mr. Advani felt that “allies would be forthcoming,” he said he could not predict if the NDA would garner more allies this time around. “From among the allies, the stable allies are those who have in their State, the Congress as its principal adversary — those are the stable allies,” he said.

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