New Delhi, May 9
Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee believes it is better to have a coalition with “large parties”
and that General Election should not be viewed in the limited perspective of who
gets or doesn’t get minority votes.
Rejecting suggestions that he had expressed
fatigue at running a coalition of more than one score disparate political
parties pursuing their own agenda, he maintained “we are not late in realising
the need for a coalition, the Congress is.”
In contrast, even now the Congress
faith in coalition politics was half-hearted and its capacity suspect, the Prime
Minister observed in an interview to The Tribune.
Elaborating, Mr Vajpayee said
the Congress had failed to forge an alliance at the national level whereas “we
have gone before the people with a pre-poll alliance that have a common
manifesto. We have successfully run a coalition government for the past five
years and we shall again demonstrate our ability to do so if the people give us
another chance.”
Describing as hypothetical the kind of realignment of forces
he envisaged in a post-election scenario, the Prime Minister maintained that the
NDA was all set to form government. “Our doors are open to all parties that
support our platform of development, good governance and peace. If any party
wants to join the NDA, why should we stop them”, he wondered.
Answering a wide
range of questions, Mr Vajpayee dismissed as a “wrong understanding” that the
BJP aspired to get a majority on its own without gaining the confidence of the
minorities constituting 14 per cent of the population.
Emphasising that the
minorities were beginning to support the BJP in significant numbers, he had no
doubt that it would indeed be shown by the outcome of the current parliamentary
elections.
“Since our very inception, we have been trying to gain the
confidence and support of all sections of our diverse society, including the
minorities. We are steadily advancing in that direction, election after
election,” he explained.
“We do not keep any section of our diverse society
outside the realm of our care and consideration. Ours is a national party, a
nationalist party. As the name suggests, the Bharatiya Janata party stands for
the people of India.”
Mr Vajpayee insisted that the opposition was “spreading
falsehood” about the BJP that the party had not changed its track in Uttar
Pradesh or that the “India Shining” campaign had peaked very early. He expressed
optimism about taking the Indo-Pak peace process forward.
On his appeal to the
minorities to give his government another chance at the Centre, the Prime
Minister noted it was a serious matter which should not be viewed from the
limited perspective of who got or did not get the votes of the minorities. A lie
repeated a hundred times did not become a truth. Such false and irresponsible
propaganda, conducted ceaselessly, did not contribute to communal amity.
He had
little doubt that the minority brethern would look at the situation in its
totality and make the right choice, even as the Opposition was indulging in such
propaganda for narrow electoral reasons as it had no worthwhile issue to present
before the people.
On taking the Indo-Pakistan peace process forward, Mr
Vajpayee re-affirmed his commitment and said there was growing realisation in
both countries that “we should resolve all bilateral issues, including Jammu and
Kashmir, peacefully and through sustained dialogue. This new mindset was the
best guarantor of progress in mutual efforts.”
He pointed out the benefits of
peace and cooperation between India and Pakistan, especially for the people of
Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. This was the age of
development through regional cooperation, he emphasised.
Further, he said the
Indo-Pakistan cricket series in the neighbouring country was a step in the right
direction. It had helped build bonds of friendship between the people of India
and Pakistan.
He explained: “We did not take this decision from any electoral
considerations. Victory and defeat are part of the game. They are not to be
associated with any particular party. When our team wins, the entire country
feels good. Similarly, when there is defeat, everybody feels unhappy. But as the
series turned out, the game of cricket won and the cause of friendship as
well.”
On the “India Shining” campaign having peaked too early, Mr Vajpayee
said the BJP had never claimed that the fruits of development had reached all
sections or all parts of India equally.
“I should add that the poverty that you
describe in your question is not the making of our government. We have inherited
it from the past. The people must know this. We are determined to remove
developmental imbalances and social inequalities. Which is why our manifesto
talks of faster economic growth, with equity and social justice. We want to take
the vikas Ganga to every village, every family. Accomplishing this is integral
to our goal of making India a developed nation by 2020.”
He said nobody in the
world or at home, except the Congress, disputed that India had achieved several
shining successes on the economic front. Even a poor Indian would be happy to
see new highways being built or new pucca roads being built near his own
village. These gave him the awareness that India was on the move.
Mr Vajpayee
did not think that the BJP found itself in troubled waters necessitating the
party to change track in Uttar Pradesh, which contributes the maximum number of
80 seats to the Lok Sabha. The party assessment was the BJP would win more seats
in UP this time.
Disagreeing with the proposition that the vision documents of
the BJP and the Congress both were virtually similar, Mr Vajpayee was of the
opinion that the BJP’s vision document and the NDA’s manifesto were far more
comprehensive and programme-oriented that the Congress manifesto.
“We have set
ourselves more ambitious goals and tasks such as launching the river-Linking
project, unveiling the second Green Revolution, modernising India’s
infrastructure and expanding the scope of Connectivity Revolution. To succeed
where the Congress has failed is our resolve,” the Prime Minister concluded.
