New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Stepping up its attack on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has suffered ‘loss of confidence’ in dealing with problems facing his government, and called upon its cadres to ready for a possible early general election, but unitedly.
In a hard-hitting attack on the government at the end of its two-day national executive meeting, the BJP said there was ‘drift in governance’ in the UPA.
‘The government is in a suicidal mode, we don’t need to disturb it,’ senior leader L.K. Advani said in a rejoinder to the prime minister’s earlier statement.
‘The UPA’s style of governance is full of arrogance, smugness and intolerance,’ BJP leader Arun Jaitley told reporters after the national executive meeting ended.
Attacking the prime minister, Jaitley said Manmonhan Singh always lacked authority. ‘There is also now lack of confidence in dealing with the situation.’
Meanwhile, with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s absence hogging headlines and pointing to a rift in the party, senior leaders in their speeches emphasised the need for the party to give a ‘show of unity’.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said a revulsion had set in against the government and the party should have an image of unity.
‘This government will not last long, and being the principal opposition party it is our responsibility to be ready. We must learn from the Congress’ mistakes and maintain a clean image and unity in party, keeping allies together…’ she said. ‘This is how we will fulfill our duty as an opposition and also be prepared for an alternate government.’
Besides Modi, the meeting was not attended by former Karnataka chief minister B.S.Yeddyurappa.
Referring to media reports about reasons for Modi’s absence, Jaitley insisted that the Gujarat chief minister had no differences with senior leader L.K. Advani.
According to sources, Modi skipped the meet because he was upset over Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar being chosen to flag off Advani’s anti-corruption ‘yatra’ from a Bihar village.
Refusing to take questions on the issue of party’s prime ministerial candidate, Jaitley said the party had already made it clear that the matter will be decided by the parliamentary board at an appropriate time.
He said there was a question mark which way the future of politics in this country was headed.
‘There does not appear to be much confidence that this government will survive till 2014. Our leaders emphasised that the party should be prepared for all possibilities.’
The conclave discussed the strategy for the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab.
Referring to Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee’s statement that inferences in his ministry’s note on 2G spectrum do not reflect his views, Jaitley said it was an ‘uneasy truce’ with Home Minister P. Chidambaram.
‘Never do we remember senior ministers presenting themselves before the media and country and making it appear as a joint communique,’ he said.
Such joint communiques were issued when differences were to be resolved between either sovereign nations or political groups, he added.
Calling Mukherjee’s statement and Chidambaram’s subsequent acceptance of it as a ‘farce’, he said it had demolished the concept of collective responsibility.
Jaitley said the BJP national executive meeting also discussed Advani’s anti-corruption ‘yatra’ which begins Oct 11 from Bihar.
The meet passed a political resolution and another on the India-Bangladesh land transfer agreement.
The political resolution demanded Chidambaram’s removal over his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation, and raised questions about the prime minister’s culpability – alleging that he ‘by-passed the cabinet and excluded spectrum pricing from the GoM jurisdiction which facilitated the massive 2G scam’.
The resolution also slammed the UPA government on price rise, economic mismanagement, the cash-for-votes scandal, Commonwealth Games scam, incidents of terror and the Planning Commission affidavit in the apex court defining poverty line cut-off at daily expenditure of Rs.32 in urban area and Rs.26 in rural areas.
