The Hindu : High on rhetoric, low on specifics: Jaitley

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

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High on rhetoric, low on specifics: Jaitley

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 22. The Union Law Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson, Arun Jaitley, today dismissed the Congress manifesto as "not a document of a political party expecting to come to power." It was "high on rhetoric and low on specifics."

Taking a dig at the manifesto "for the common man," he said that "the common man was an instrument for the politics of a privileged family."

At the same time, his reaction to the entry of Rahul Gandhi, son of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, into active politics was rather lukewarm. "They have the right to field candidates of their choice. We are not surprised. In terms of future leadership creation, the Congress has always depended on one family rather than merit and experience." He did not think that Rahul Gandhi's candidature from Amethi would "dilute" the "foreign origin issue." The Congress had not clarified on who would lead the coalition.

Other party leaders have indicated that the top BJP leadership would draw up a strategy by fielding some impressive candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli to contest against Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Some BJP leaders said they also expected Priyanka Vadhra, Rahul's sister, to fight the Lok Sabha elections.

Coming back to the Congress manifesto, Mr. Jaitley said that the "eight per cent GDP growth rate" achieved by the NDA was evidence that a large number of jobs had been created since the economy was growing fast. He said that the Congress had recognised that one way to ensure creation of more jobs was to put the economy on a high growth trajectory of "8 to 10 per cent."

However, the BJP's economic cell coordinator, P.N. Vijay, admitted, when asked, that the overall growth rate achieved by the two Vajpayee Governments since 1998 was just above the five per cent mark (lower than the growth achieved in the five years of the Narasimha Rao Government). Neither Mr. Jaitley nor Mr. Vijay explained how many more jobs had been created despite this low growth rate, although they themselves said that high growth rate and job creation were directly linked.

He did not comment on the Congress promise of "at least 100 days of employment" each year to a person in every rural household, but said the "Congress has laid out about the same road map we have for tackling unemployment." Mr. Jaitley criticised the manifesto for "lack of clarity on disinvestment."

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