Advani's charge

PM is not "Manmohan" at all

The BJP's national executive committee meeting in Bangalore saw fireworks aimed at UPA Government with its leaders coming down heavily on the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The Prime Minister-in-waiting LK Advani described Manmohan Singh as the weakest ever PM in history. In his judgment, the people did not find the PM "manmohan" at all. Excerpts from the BJP supremo's charge-sheet against the UPA:

What the people of Bihar, Assam and other parts of the country that face floods almost every year are looking for is not just the routine 3-R strategy (Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction) but an effective P strategy (Prevention). If the people give the NDA their mandate to form the next Government in New Delhi, we shall immediately begin work on a comprehensive, long-term flood-control strategy. Wherever feasible, we shall also integrate the flood-prevention and drought-prevention strategies by reviving Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government's ambitious River-Linking Project, which the UPA Government has callously abandoned.

UPA Govt must quit, call for fresh polls
I also pay homage to the victims of the serial bomb blasts in Delhi yesterday evening. Under the UPA rule, terrorists have no fear because the Congress party and its Government are gripped with fear - the fear of losing vote-banks -when it comes to taking uncompromising legal and administrative measures against terrorism. Their unwillingness and incapacity to fight terrorism and separatism have created an unprecedented threat to India's unity and security. At the same time, the economic security of the common man is also threatened by the UPA Government's failure to contain unprecedented rise in the prices of all essential commodities and services.

In short, the UPA Government has become a curse for the country and the common man. I hold the Prime Minister principally responsible for the Mega Failure (in the fight against price rise and terrorism), Mega Scandal (the recent "Cash-for-Votes" scandal which was a crime on India's Parliament) and Mega Fraud (the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, the recent revelations about which are

i) violations of assurances given to Parliament ; and

ii) deception perpetrated on the people in respect of the deal providing light to every house in the country.

Dr. Manmohan Singh's spineless Government has lost all legitimacy to continue in office even for a day longer. It must quit immediately, paving the way for fresh Parliamentary elections, so that the people can elect a new Government that has the determination and ability to address the grave challenges facing the nation.

Significance of 12th September and Bangalore in my life
…The choice of Bangalore for holding this meeting, as also the date, September 12, when this meeting began, make me go down the memory lane. September 12 is an unforgettable day in my life. It was on this day in 1947 that I left Karachi, the city of my birth where I spent the first 20 years of my life, for good and came to this part of India after Partition.

Karnataka, BJP's entry point in South India
I applaud Shri B.S. Yeddyurappa ji for his determined and popular leadership. Last week he completed 100 action-packed days in office. All I wish to say is: Keep up this momentum and do everything necessary to fulfill the expectations of the people. At the same time, avoid the wrong steps that brought disrepute and harm to the previous governments in Karnataka.

UPA Govt's betrayal of the aam aadmi and kisan
Of late both the Congress president and the Prime Minister have been proudly claiming that the UPA Government has fulfilled all the promises it made to the people in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP). They are either in a make-believe world of their own or they think that the people are fools to believe them. What else can one say about a Government that is taking pride in the growing misery of the poor and middle-class families due to its failure to control price rise? As far as the aam aadmi is concerned, the burden of unprecedented price rise is the single most important reason for his wanting to vote out the UPA Government.

The UPA Government's failure to check inflation is taking a heavy toll. Economic growth is slowing. As a result, employment opportunities for our young people are further shrinking. The housing boom for the middle-classes initiated by the NDA Government's policies has come to a halt. Rising interest rates are hurting every sector of the economy, especially small and medium enterprises. For no fault of theirs, middle-class families are required to pay double the amount of EMI (Equated Monthly Installment) on the housing loans they took during the NDA Government's low interest-rate regime.

The UPA Government's much-trumpeted loan waiver for farmers has proved to be a propaganda gimmick, an ineffective medicine to cure a deep-rooted and systemic malady afflicting Indian agriculture.
The BJP and the NDA, if voted to power, will end the neglect of agriculture and the rural economy. We will also take expeditious steps to reverse the slowdown in the economy and, indeed, accelerate the rate of growth of GDP to double digits. However, GDP is an abstract concept that a common man cannot understand. I would like the Party to explain to the people our distinctive philosophy of GDP, in which G stands for Good Governance at all levels, D stands for Development for all and P stands for Protection of the country and the common man.

Kashmir: from "Special Status" to Separatism
The current leadership of the Congress has shown the kind of callous unconcern that would have shocked many nationalist Congressmen of yesteryears. Consider how India has lost nearly all the strategic gains of the 1971 war for the liberation of Bangladesh. The criminal apathy of successive Congress governments towards the menace of large-scale infiltration from Bangladesh has created a grave threat to India's own unity and security in Assam and the rest of the North-East.

The Supreme Court, while striking down the IMDT Act as unconstitutional, has described the influx of Bangladeshis as "external aggression". It has directed the Central Government to take effective measures to plug the loopholes that plagued the IMDT Act. The UPA Government has contemptuously disregarded this directive. Why? Due to the Congress party's myopic politics of minorityism.

The same politics of minorityism was also at the root of the Government's recent mishandling of the situation in Jammu & Kashmir - first buckling under the pressure of separatists to revoke the allotment of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board and later showing pusillanimity when slogans of secession rent the air in Srinagar. The Amarnath issue is neither Hindu vs. Muslim nor Jammu vs. Kashmir; it is Nationalists vs. Separatists. No words are, therefore, enough to show our gratitude to the patriotic people of Jammu for forcing a compromising Government at the Centre to at least partially rectify its earlier blunder.
The Amarnath issue has made one thing clear: today's Congress leadership has mentally accepted that Kashmir is separate from the rest of India, and should be treated as such. This dangerous slide from "Special Status to Separatism" must be halted. Only the BJP and its allies can do it.

Firm anti-terror action will be part of our 100-day agenda
The terrorist acts in Delhi - as also the long chain of terrorist attacks in various parts of the country in the past 4-5 years - clearly indicate that a new phase in the terrorist war on India has begun. It has two distinguishing and disturbing features. Firstly, although terrorism's global network continues to be the mastermind of this war, its local roots have spread wider. Secondly, it is receiving open support in certain sections of the political class, which was never the case earlier. We have a Government that is refusing to implement the Supreme Court's verdict on death sentence for someone who is convicted in the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament. Two Cabinet ministers in this Government have publicly defended SIMI without being reprimanded by the Prime Minister.

How Congress has treated its most loyal supporters!
The UPA Government has projected setting up of the Sachar Committee as one of its major achievements for the benefit of the Muslim community. The truth, however, is quite different - and unpalatable. The Sachar report's only merit is that it has revealed how the Congress party has all along treated its most loyal supporters. Isn't the Congress, which has ruled India for the longest period of the time, responsible for the poverty and backwardness afflicting a large section of Indian Muslims? And if this is how the Congress treats its most loyal supporters, one can make out how it treats others.

The BJP's sincere and straight-forward message to our Muslim brethren is this: We care for all sections of India's diverse society equally without any discrimination. We are committed to removing the curse of poverty and backwardness in every community. However, we firmly believe that religion-based measures to address these problems are both divisive and ineffective. The poor of all communities should have the first claim on the nation's developmental resources. This approach promotes both equitable development and national integration.

BJP must take the lead on the Telangana issue
The UPA government has betrayed its promise to the people of Andhra at the time of the last Parliamentary and Assembly elections in 2004 that their government will form a separate Telangana state. Contrast this to the track record of the NDA Government. The people of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh would always remember that it was the NDA Government that fulfilled its promise to them by carving out these three separate states.

Five tasks before the Party
First, the entire Party, from top to bottom, must immediately come into a "Must-Win" mode, with unity in thought, unity in strategy and unity in action.

Second, the BJP has to take the lead in strengthening the NDA - and also expanding it in the coming days.
Third, no other party in India has as many leaders who, as individuals, are admired for their talent and expertise.

Fourth, people place their faith in that opposition party which not only highlights the Government's failures, but also presents its own positive agenda showing how it proposes to tackle the issues on which it is criticizing the Government. The BJP shall soon prepare an inspiring and comprehensive Agenda for Good Governance, Development and Security.

Fifth, intensify the efforts to reach out to young first-time voters, who will form a decisive segment of the electorate.

Many useful initiatives have been undertaken by the Parivar organizations. Recently, more than 100 activists of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch undertook a unique Paigam-e-Aman Yatra from Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi to Hazrat Bal in Srinagar to mobilize support for the Amarnath issue.