National Issues

Sabrang Election Monitor -- (Evening) February 23, 2004 NATIONAL ISSUES: ‘India cheated’, but by whom, asks Advani The Congress's response to the 'India Shining' campaign with its 'India Cheated' version has raised the BJP's hackles. So upset is the party that it is all set to unleash a counter-offensive with an uncomfortable poser to the Congress - "Cheated by whom?" "India cheated? Yes," Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani told The Pioneer. "But by whom? We had planned to go to the electorate only on the basis of what we did in the past five years and sincerely believed that an all- pervasive feel-good factor is there. But now when the Congress says India has been cheated, it is only inviting trouble," he said. Mr Advani further quipped, "Who gave the slogan of 'Garibi hato'. It was Indira Gandhi's catchy election slogan in 1971. What happened after that? The BJP leaders hope that a negative campaign by the Opposition party would eventually boomerang on them. [Source: The Pioneer] TIP: See news item below All shine, no money for rural India NEW DELHI : "Government Cheating" instead of "India Cheated" could perhaps be a more appropriate punch line for the Congress in countering the Vajpayee government's "India Shining" campaign. The Rs 50,000-crore farm and rural infrastructure fund, that forms the basis for the government's make-believe world of India's 650 million farmers and rural folks "shining", turns out to be a mere sleight of hand. The government has launched a new fund — Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Fund — to develop farm and rural infrastructure. However, at the same time, it has quietly withdrawn the highly-successful Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). The sum total is zero, according to officials and agricultural experts. [Source: Times of India] No IAF aircraft for Advani: EC The Election Commission on Monday rejected the government's request to allow Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani to use Indian Air Force aircraft for election campaigning. [Source: Rediff.com] 1 Ram Mandir not to be part of JD(U)'s agenda: Fernandes LUCKNOW: George Fernandes, National President of Janata Dal (U), an ally of ruling NDA, said although the Ayodhya dispute would not feature in the election agenda of NDA or his party but would have no objection if BJP puts the issue on its poll agenda. "Ram mandir can be on BJP's agenda but it would be not an agenda of NDA or Janata Dal (U)," Fernandes, who is also convenor of the National Democratic Alliance, told reporters here. [Source: Times of India] Ram Temple not an election issue: Vajpayee Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Monday said construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya will not be an election issue and hoped that efforts made in resolving it would succeed. "It is linked to people's emotion. We should resolve it. I hope efforts in this direction will succeed," Vajpayee said. Asked if temple construction would form part of the BJP manifesto, Vajpayee, flanked by former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh and Union Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh, said, "When the manifesto comes out, it will be before you." [Source: Rediff.com] Choose NDA or chaos: Jaitley Shimla: Asserting that Congress had no leader, no clear policy on alliance and no common platform to fight the NDA, Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley said the choice before the people would be "NDA or chaos". "The Opposition has no leader, no clear policy on alliance, no common platform and the formation of two fronts to fight the NDA would only be a 'recipe' for chaos," Mr Jaitley said. He said the Congress had so far only two settled alliances. In Bihar with the RJD and in Maharashtra with the NCP and the people would have to decide whether they want to have a Government like Bihar which was the "mascot of malgovernance" or like Maharashtra where top leaders were "tainted" in the stamp paper scam. [Source: The Pioneer] Varun Gandhi targets aunt in speech It lasted for just 10 minutes, but Varun Gandhi's maiden political speech at Bharatiya Janata Party state president Gopinath Munde’s felicitation function gave enough indication that he was not going to spare his aunt, Congress president Sonia Gandhi while campaigning for the BJP in coming months. Wearing a black sherwani and a maroon coloured shawl, Varun spoke in chaste Hindi and started his speech with a barb at Sonia. “I do not wish to be a reader but a leader,” he said to a loud applause from the BJP activists, referring to Sonia’s style of reading out her speeches. [Source: Mid-Day] 2 STATES: BIHAR Laloo accused of non-utilisation of central fund PATNA : The leader of opposition in the state assembly Sushil Kumar Modi on Sunday said that if the going rate of rural electrification was any indication, it would take 80 years for the state government to complete the rural electrification programme in Bihar . As of now, Modi said, 27,366 villages were yet to be electrified even as the RJD had been in power for the past 14 years. It included 11,229 such villages which were electrified several years back, he said. Modi said that the centre had released Rs.195 crore during the past two years to Bihar for rural electrification but the Bihar state electricity board could spend only Rs.69 crore electrifying 1,542 villages against a target of 6,579 villages though it had Rs.188 crore at its disposal during 2002- 03.Similarly, against a target of 10,000 villages during 2003-04, the government had electrified only 1,300 villages till December 2003. [Source: Times of India] MAHARASHTRA Sena-BJP for concurrent polls, threaten resignation MUMBAI: Shiv Sena-BJP combine on Saturday threatened to resign from Maharashtra Legislative Assembly if Congress-NCP led DF government did not go for simultaneous polls in the state. "The Shiv Sena-BJP combine has decided that they would ask their members to resign from the State Assembly if Congress-NCP led DF government in the state did not go for assembly polls simultaneously with Lok Sabha elections," said BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan. [Source: PTI] GUJARAT Tension evident between Chaudhary and Vaghela AHMEDABAD: The tension between ex-president of Gujarat PCC Shankersinh Vaghela and CLP leader Amarsinh Chaudhary became evident on Saturday, when Vaghela made a brief appearance at the felicitation his successor B K Gadhvi hosted by the Ahmedabad City-District Congress Committee. Vaghela was the first to walk in for the meeting, but walked out immediately after brief speech wherein he exhorted Congress workers to treat the Lok Sabha elections like an annual examination. [Source: Times of India] PUNJAB Feel-good missing in Jalandhar industry JALANDHAR: This industrial hub of Punjab is reeling under a crisis with industry closing down and people queuing up outside the passport office. While those rendered jobless are switching over to other jobs, many manufacturers are taking to trading, and laid-off workers are drawing 3 rickshaws. Experts are of the opinion that the feel-good factor being projected by the NDA belongs to the elite. "Out of the 300 nuts and bolts units in Jalandhar which provided employment to 4000 persons, only 25 units are functioning. Even these are surviving on bank finance, and after salariescuts and lay-offs. "They too are likely to close down. Of the 120 auto components manufacturing units in Jalandhar, only 50 are functioning and that too on bank finance and with a cut in employees strength and wages. These provided employment to 25,000 men. [Source: Times of India] Naidu balm: No Hema, no Dara HOSHIARPUR: BJP president Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday sought to calm nerves in the Punjab unit of the party by announcing that no "cine paratroopers" would contest Lok Sabha seats from the state. Inaugurating the BJP election campaign by launching "Atal sandesh abhiyan"here , Naidu said the BJP would announce its candidates between March 10 and 15. The state units, he said, had been asked to recommend names for by March 10. Naidu dispelled fears of the BJP unit that Hema Malini and Dara Singh would be asked enter the fray in the state. Speculation had been rife that the two stars would fight from Hoshiarpur and Amritsar . [Source: Times of India] HIMACHAL BJP not riding a 'feel good' crest in Himachal SHIMLA: With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the BJP may be riding a 'feel good' crest at the centre level, but in this tiny hill state there seem to be many a slip between the cup and the lip as the two party state stalwarts, former union minister Shanta Kumar and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, as also their cupporters continue to be at loggerheads. The bone of contention between the two warring leaders is said to be the return of the organisers of the so-called "mitra milans", in which party lkeaders and workers ousted from the BJP, held meetings and opposed the stand of Dhumal in sidelining Shanta-loyalists. [Source: Times of India] UTTARANCHAL: Trained Bajrangis will “stop booth capturing” at sensitive centers VHP leader Lalit Panth has said that Congress dream of making Sonia Gandhi Prime Minster will be shattered by the VHP. Only the BJP is safe-guarding Hindutva and therefore VHP will only support the BJP. District working president Ajay Tamta has said that in this election no body will allowed to capture booths, and for that reason from the month of March, Bajrang Dal workers will be given special training.

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