Federalfronta failed idea: Jaitley Lies, treachery mark NDA rule, says Congress
4 YEARS OF NDA GOVT Says ‘Modi versus anarchist group’ will govern the political debate
NEWDELHI: Unionfinanceminister Arun Jaitley on Saturday slammed the prospect of coming together of various opposition parties a year before the general elections, calling the federal front a “failed idea”.
He also said that the political agenda for the debate this year would be “Modi versus an anarchist combination”.
In a write-up on the fourth anniversary of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, Jaitley said the last few days have witnessed a discussion about a “fictional alternative”, and a group of “disparate” political parties are promising to come together. “Some of their leaders are temperamental, the others occasionally change ideological positions,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday. “Some leaders are maverick and others include those who are either convicted or charged with serious allegations of corruption.”
Jaitley named parties such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal (Secular) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), with whom the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shared power in the past, and said they frequently change political positions by supporting the BJP in the name of national interest and opposing it in the name of secularism.
“These are ideologically flexible political groups. Stable politics is far from their political track record. Some amongst this disparate group have an extremely dubious track record of governance,” he said.
The senior BJP leader said the political support base of many of the opposition parties is confined to either a few districts or to a particular caste. Jaitley argued that ruling a large country like India was possible through coalition, but that the nucleus of such a coalition has to be stable. “It must have a large size, an ideologically defined position and a vested interest in honest governance.”
He referred to the 1996-1998 period to argue that “such a front with its contradictions, sooner or later, loses its balance and equilibrium”. “...the aspirational India which today occupies the high table in the world shall never accept an idea which has repeatedly failed. History teaches us this lesson. Aspirational societies with vibrant democracies do not invite anarchy,” he wrote.
The 2014 polls, he said, “conclusively established that in the
New India chemistry will score over arithmetic when it comes to deciding the country’s destiny”.
The minister said the fifth year of the Modi government will be the “year of consolidation of the policies and programmes which we have implemented”.
He called the PM “a strong leader with a mass appeal”, and argued that “his insistence on integrity, his infatigable capacity to work, his clarity of policy and direction, his boldness in taking steps in larger national interest gives the NDA a natural political advantage”. “Clarity and credibility are hallmarks of the NDA Government.”
“Good governance and good economics have been blended with good politics. The result of this has been that the BJP is more
confident, its geographical base has become much bigger, its social base has expanded and its winnability has hugely increased,” he said.
Attacking the Congress, Jaitley said the party “is in desperation without the perks of office”.
“From the dominant party of Indian politics, it is moving towards the ‘fringe’, its political positions are not of a mainstream party but one usually adopted by ‘fringe’ organisations. Fringe organisations can never hope to come in power,” he added.
“Its best hope lies in becoming a supporter of regional political parties. State level regional political parties have realised that the marginalised Congress can at best be either a junior partner or a marginal supporter,” he said. NEWDELHI: The Congress on Saturday termed the four years of the Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government as a “period of treachery, trickery, revenge and lies” and said the people now know that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah were “harmful” to the country.
The principal opposition party also released a booklet titled “India Betrayed” on the completion of four years of the NDA government. It was on May 26 four years ago that Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister, replacing Manmohan Singh who remained at the helm for 10 years from 2004 to 2014. In the booklet released in English and Hindi, the Congress has asked 40 questions to the Prime Minister on issues such as agriculture and rural distress, farmers’ suicides, “growing” unemployment, the alleged Punjab National Bank scam, Rafale aircraft deal, allegations of corruption against senior BJP leaders and rising fuel prices.
Addressing a news conference at the party headquarters in Delhi, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot and Randeep Singh Surjewala said an “atmosphere of fear and hatred had been created” under the NDA regime. Referring to alleged atrocities on Dalits, tribals, minorities and women, Azad said, “Nobody is safe in India under the BJP government. Everyone is getting sleepless nights.”
“Modi and Shah should have shared the formula of converting ₹50,000 into ₹80 crore. This is called khaane nahi denge, par khud khayenge,” said Azad, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress observed the fourth anniversary of the NDA government as “Vishwasghat Diwas (betrayal day)”. Apart from holding demonstrations across the country, party leaders also held news conferences in 20 different cities. “These four years can be defined in four terms — treachery, trickery, revenge and lies. Hence, India Betrayed,” Sur- jewala told reporters. Surjewala, who is the Congress party’s chief spokesperson, said that the government has incurred an expenditure of ₹4,600 crore on “insurmountable” advertisements. “Modi is on a perpetual campaign but refuses to understand people’s pain. In these four years, he accumulated publicity but India only accumulated pain,” he said and added “Modi ji would have been successful if the country could be run on speeches. There is a huge difference between his words and action”
For his part, Gehlot said that “an atmosphere of fear, hatred and violence was created” in the past four years of the Modi government. “No other Prime Minister has ever reduced the dignity of the post like Modi ji,” he said. The Congress leaders said the BJP should officially rename itself as the “Betrayal Janata Party”.
The right-wing party’s chief sought to rebut Congress’s charges by stating that under the UPA government, scams worth ₹12 lakh crores made headlines while during NDA’S tenure, development works have done so. Shah also took a dig at the Congress, saying that those who imposed the Emergency, imprisoned more than a lakh people and silenced the media are now talking of an atmosphere of fear and the freedom of media.
On the occasion, the Congress also released and showed a short film on the present situation in the country.