The Hindu : National : Be prepared for greater responsibility, Vajpayee tells party CMs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 13, 2004

National

National

Be prepared for greater responsibility, Vajpayee tells party CMs

By Neena Vyas

MAKING A POINT: Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Venkaiah Naidu at the party's Chief Ministers' conference in New Delhi on Sunday. - Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 12. The Lok Sabha election results "may not have been what we wanted," but "the Bharatiya Janata Party had an important role to perform and a responsibility to fulfil," the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, told a gathering of its Chief Ministers and senior party leaders here today while he enigmatically added that the party "must be prepared for [a] greater responsibility''.

Mr. Vajpayee was delivering the concluding address at the BJP Chief Ministers' Conference that started yesterday. Although he did not spell out what that "greater responsibility" would be, some of the Chief Ministers later said that they felt he was referring to a "possible change of Government at the Centre." However, some others among the BJP's top leaders felt he was simply talking about the need for a political party as large as the BJP to prepare for the future.

The former Prime Minister stressed that maintaining law and order was the prime responsibility of State Governments and they must take the "people's help" in doing this. He also warned that people would not wait indefinitely for the Government and its institutions to do this — he referred to an incident in Nagpur where an accused was lynched by a crowd.

Unemployment problem

He talked of the need to strengthen internal and external security for that was essential for India's unity and integrity. While talking directly about the threat from terrorism, he also warned his party's Chief Ministers that unemployment among youth was a problem linked to terrorism. "If they (the youth) do not have a job in their hands then someone will give them a gun... that is what is happening." While modernisation of the police was essential this aspect had also to be kept in mind, he said.

In an indirect reference to the issue of starting a dialogue with the Hurriyat and other Kashmiri groups, he said there was need to take along those who had gone stray. "We had done that for six years, I hope those efforts will continue."

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