The Hindu : `BJP document, yet another public deception exercise'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 01, 2004

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National

`BJP document, yet another public deception exercise'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 31. The Congress today described the Bharatiya Janata Party's "Vision Document 2004'' as yet another exercise in "public deception and self-delusion'' while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said it was primarily a "list of unsubstantiated propositions.''

In a written statement issued here today, the Congress noted that no political party has promoted "personal idolatry of the Prime Minister'' the way the BJP has done in its Vision Document. Of the view that the Vision Document was like the "PM's personal photo album,'' the Congress said it had less of vision and more of blind personal worship of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Accusing the BJP of pursuing a politics of convenience - picking up and abandoning issues at will — the Congress statement questions the claims made in the Vision Document vis-à-vis internal and external security and also seeks to expose the "huge hiatus between promise and performance.''

As a case in point, the Congress spokesman, Abhishek Singhvi, said at a press conference that "instead of eradicating unemployment as promised in its 1999 manifesto, the BJP-led NDA Government has presided over an increase in the unemployment rate from 5.99 per cent in 1993-94 to 7.32 per cent in 1999-2000.''

In its statement, the CPI(M) questioned the rationale in the BJP bringing out its own manifesto when it was contesting the polls as part of the NDA.

"That they have chosen to independently state their position reveals the actual motive of seeking to consolidate the communal Hindu vote bank.''

Stating that there is an "orchestrated campaign of disinformation that suggests that the BJP has softened its stand on the contentious Hindutva agenda,'' the CPI(M) position is that "mere verbal acrobatics'' cannot remove or conceal real intentions.

Taking exception to the manner in which the BJP has sought to appropriate the Father of the Nation — "a victim of the RSS assassination conspiracy'' — the CPI(M) said: "To invoke his legacy to justify their pernicious ideological agenda is something even the devil would shudder to do ... The BJP, indeed, is a chameleon that changes its colours depending on the environment. The RSS, however, is a leopard which cannot change its spots. This document of the BJP is an expression of this leopard-chameleon partnership.''

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