The Hindu : National : CMP verbose, visionless: Venkaiah

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 29, 2004

National

National

CMP verbose, visionless: Venkaiah

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 28. The Bharatiya Janata Party today criticised the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, questioning the viability of fulfilling "grandiose" promises made in it.

Talking to reporters here, the BJP president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, said the CMP bore "testimony to the confusion, contradictions and compromise" of the new ruling alliance and wondered how it would mobilise resources needed for implementing the promises made in it.

He described the CMP as a "document prepared with the mindset of 1960s, completely unsuited to the global and national conditions of 2004." "The compromises struck under the pressure of the Communist parties, who enjoy power without any responsibility, are designed to derail the economy from the fast track growth it recorded under six years of the NDA Government," he said. "The CMP is also silent on how the new Government will step up investments — public or private — to achieve the promised growth rate of 7-8 per cent. The BJP has serious doubts whether the new Government, already being pulled and pushed in different directions, will be able to exercise fiscal prudence," he said.

He said the CMP made minimum commitment on implementation. "It has no time table and no specific milestones for pursuing any of its promises. After taking so many days to produce a CMP, the UPA partners have produced a cut-and-paste document that is verbose but visionless," he added.

He said it was "unfortunate" that the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had to defend the inclusion of "tainted" Ministers in his Cabinet. It reflected on the Government's "scant concern for probity" in governance. Opposing the proposal to repeal the Prevention Of Terrorism Act, Mr. Naidu said "the imprint of the pseudo-secular mindset is evident in the CMP's promise."

The new Government had chosen to turn a blind eye to the threat of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and in several parts of the country. Recalling the recent ambush in which 29 Border Security Force jawans and members of their families were killed, he said "the BJP alerts the nation to the ominous move by the ruling alliance to bring in a terrorist-friendly legislative regime."

Commenting on the Prime Minister's observations that there was a presumption of innocence in favour of the "tainted" Ministers, he recalled that Dr. Singh himself had observed in the case of the erstwhile BJP Ministers chargesheeted in the Ayodhya case that "Ceasar's wife should be above suspicion."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National