The Hindu : Promise of good governance helped BJP in 1998: Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 01, 2004

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Promise of good governance helped BJP in 1998: Advani

By Our Staff Correspondent

TUMKUR, FEB. 29. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today said that as the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1997, it was he who influenced the people to change their mind in favour of the party and enabled the Vajpayee Government to take charge at the Centre in 1998.

Launching the party's election campaign in the State at a meeting here, Mr. Advani said that many did not know what preceded the rejection of the Congress in 1998, paving the way for Mr. Vajpayee to become Prime Minister. "In 1997, I took out the Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra across the country to mark the 50th anniversary of Independence, and I put across a message to the people. Its summary was that the Congress, which secured Swaraj (freedom) for the country, failed to give Suraj (good governance). Hence the country is backward. I promised to establish Suraj if the BJP was voted to power. People responded to it and gave it the mandate to rule," he said.

The party had been striving hard to fulfil his promise, Mr. Advani said. Its six-year rule had shown what a good government could do. All the governments in the past put together had not done what the National Democratic Alliance Government had succeeded in doing.Stating that the NDA Government could build 11 km. of highways every day, Mr. Advani said the highways did not benefit only the rich. Easy and quick transport of materials and communication would help fast economic development and people of all sections, including farmers, would derive benefits. That NDA Government forced the banks to provide farm loans at nine per cent interest. "Farmers interests are always uppermost for us. Every decision is based on this," Mr. Advani said.

Between 1988 and 1998, the Governments at the Centre were highly unstable and the country saw seven Prime Ministers in those years. The NDA Government brought stability at the Centre. "Mr. Vajpayee has been the Prime Minister since 1998. He will be there, if people bless the BJP, for the next five years also," he said.

The Minister of State for Railways, Basanagouda R.Patil Yatnal, said, "Karnataka started shining only after the NDA Government provided enormous funds for the State." Mr. Vajpayee had provided Rs. 17,000 crores for upgrading safety measures in the Railways and Rs. 43,000 crores for laying railway lines in remote areas. Eighteen railway projects had been taken up in the State.

B.S. Yediyurappa, MLC, said the telephones of the Chief Minister, the Ministers, and other Congress leaders of the State might have been tapped. "The Centre has not done it. The stamp paper investigation team and other investigating agencies may have resorted to it," he said.

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