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Bjp Trying To Take The People Up The Garden Path Again | |
| by J. S. | |
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Who will credit Vajpayee with guts when his government balked at issuing even a strong statement attacking the U. S. A. for the rape of Baghdad? | |
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Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee appealed to the party cadres to convey to the electorate the "good work" done by his government. "Our achievements are more than just staying in power for the last five years. We have provided a new direction to the country," he stressed. But the fact is, who is going to stomach this propaganda when the reality is that the country is saddled with a weak government that could do little to check terrorist violence except to look towards the U. S. A. to bail India out of this problem; when prices of even ordinary things of daily necessity like cooking gas or vegetables being sold in the market have gone up; when getting your work done by greasing palms in government offices is the order of the day. Of course, as Vajpayee said, "only public perception of actual performance could get the party a popular mandate" in the parliamentary elections due next year. If the party could manage a hands-down victory in Gujarat, it was due to the widespread feeling there that only Narender Modi, the chief minister, had managed to kill the communal beast that was threatening the very existence of the majority community in the State. The late Indira Gandhi, despite her many failings, could win a massive mandate after the 1971 war because of the general perception that she was a leader with guts. Who will credit Vajpayee with guts when his government balked at issuing even a strong statement attacking the U. S. A. for the rape of Baghdad? Who will regard him as a leader par excellence when his government chooses to be a silent spectator to massacres of innocents in Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists being smuggled across the border by Pakistan’s ISI? Who will regard the BJP as a party with confidence when its government, fearing defections from its ranks in the coming days, is toying with the idea of further fortifying the anti-defection law? Rajiv Gandhi was the first prime minister to bring the anti-defection law on the statute book. Although sympathy generated by the assassination of his mother, Indira Gandhi, helped him win a massive mandate, when he fought the elections on his own steam, he was routed and later on even had to pay with his life for the wrong policies he had pursued with regard to Sri Lanka. Will the BJP leaders wake up and see the direction of the straws in the wind instead of comforting themselves with the thought that the Congress, by virtue of being led by a leader who is Italian by birth, could never give them a fight? Whatever one may say about it, the fact is that the Congress is already in power in 15 States in the country. The BJP President, M. Venkaiah Naidu, says that the State Assembly elections in November in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi are semi-finals for the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. Although the performance of the Congress governments in all these four States is not very creditable, it would be a mistake to base hopes for the general elections next year on what happens in the Assembly elections in these States. If the Congress fails to retain power in these four States on account of its failure to solve the problems of the people, the BJP government at the Centre may also find it difficult to re-emerge with its reputation intact from the parliamentary polls because Vajpayee and his team which includes allegedly corruption-tainted ministers also does not command respect from the cross-section of the electorate.The Congress government in Punjab may not be succeeding in tackling the problems of the people but it can certainly claim credit for blowing the lid on the corruption spawned by the previous Badal government. That government jobs in the State were on sale when the State Public Service Commission was headed by Sidhu and the kidney transplant operations were routine thanks to the massive exploitation of poor Bihari rickshaw pullers and labourers came to light only under the Congress government ruling Punjab now. The BJP’s bid to revive interest in not so important leaders of the past only to claim that, like the Congress, it could also derive inspiration from the farsighted messiahs who made their contributions to India’s independence and welfare in the past may comfort the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh and other fundamental organisations. But such belated attempts to rediscover heroes in history would not be of much consequence in so far as swaying the electorate to vote for the lotus symbol in elections is concerned. That only shows that having done little for the people who gave it a mandate to rule, the party is now engaged in an exercise to take them again up the garden path . But will the BJP succeed? Many things can happen between now and the time when parliamentary elections are held. Only time can answer this question. |
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