Speech by Shri.L.K. Advani at BJP’s National Council

SYNOPSIS OF SPEECH BY SHRI L.K. ADVANI,
LEADER OF OPPOSITION, LOK SABHA
AT BJP’S NATIONAL COUNCIL

The stability of the UPA government is just an appearance.

In a democracy, any government derives strength from two factors – people’s goodwill and support, on the one hand, and cohesion of the ruling party or coalition, on the other. The first is an external factor and the second is an internal factor.

In the case of the UPA government, both factors are now at work, in a negative manner.
The ground is slipping under the government’s feet, although those in power do not realize it.

* * *

Externally, popular resentment against the government is fast rising on account of the betrayal of most of the promises that the Congress had given before the elections. The aam aadmi is feeling cheated, on account of the unprecedented hike in prices of essential commodities and services.

Discontent among the kisans has never been as sharp and widespread as now. The continuing saga of suicides by distressed farmers, for whom agriculture has become a source of debt rather than of income, is a national shame.

Infrastructure development in key areas like highways, rural roads, power, irrigation and drinking water has lost the momentum it had picked up during the NDA government.

By far the greatest source of disquiet is the blatant and no-holds-barred minorityism that the Congress party is now indulging in. The two resolutions we have adopted at this Conference spell this out comprehensively.

Internally, UPA has proved to be not an alliance with a common positive purpose but simply an opportunistic arrangement to keep the BJP out.

Never in the history of independent India has a section of the ruling coalition – in this case, the communist parties – given a call for a nationwide bandh to protest against the “anti-poor, anti-kisan, anti-working class” economic policies of its own government! But it happened recently on December 14. That the bandh evoked little response outside Bengal and Kerala is another matter.

Here is a government which, in spite of no consensus within the alliance (not to speak of lack of consensus in Parliament, among the people and also among nuclear scientists themselves), is hell-bent on signing a nuclear deal with the United States, a deal that will essentially de-nuclearise India.

Here is a coalition which, for the first time, brought criminalization into the portals of central government. One of its ministers was charged with murder, and he had been inducted back into the cabinet even after he had become an absconder. Today he is in jail, convicted for life.

Here is also a ruling coalition which, for the first time in independent India, has established dual centres of power, with real power residing outside the government. Indeed, in all these sixty years of independence, New Delhi has never before seen a government so unconcerned about governance than this, and concerned solely about carrying on in power.

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Therefore, let the call of the Lucknow session of the National Council be:

Get ready to oust the UPA government and save the Nation.

The first challenge – and also the first opportunity – before the Party is in UP.

Let us enter the electoral fray by conveying to the people of Uttar Pradesh that the BJP is the only alternative to the politics of criminalization, casteism and chaos.

Out of the four erstwhile ‘BIMARU’ states, UP alone is still afflicted with the bimari of backwardness. As delegates to this National Council Session were informed yesterday, Rajasthan, MP and even Bihar are now on a growth path, and can no longer be bracketed with U.P.

UP is where the BJP derived its real strength on its march to power at the Centre in the late 1990s.

And UP is where the BJP will bounce back.

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Before I conclude, I would like to warn the country that the UPA Government is planning to make a major surrender on Jammu and Kashmir.

When General Musharraf made his first public statement about a 4-point formula for Kashmir, no one in our country took it seriously. But all those who have anything to do with national security were shocked to hear Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh welcoming the General’s formula. The formula amounts to granting “independence” to that part of Kashmir which is with India!

The proposal for ‘joint administration’ amounts to renouncing India’s sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir State. The country cannot allow this Government to disregard the unanimous resolution of Parliament with regard to the State.

Pandit Nehru committed a historic blunder when he, against Sardar Patel’s advice, referred the issue of Pakistani aggression on J&K to the U.N. Security Council. But even he did not hesitate one moment in taking stern action against the then Chief Minister the moment he came to the conclusion that plans were afoot to make the State “independent”.

Some time back the E.A. Minister of Pakistan Mr. Kasuri had said that India had given to the them a non-paper which is a welcome advance towards a settlement of Kashmir. I demand that the so-called non-paper be made public.