The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BJP to hold nationwide protest against UPA `misrule'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 28, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BJP to hold nationwide protest against UPA `misrule'

Staff Reporter

No aspirants in party for prime minister's post: Venkaiah Naidu

BANGALORE: Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said the BJP would launch a nationwide agitation from January 16 to May 16 to protest against the "misrule" of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government.

Participating in a meet-the-press programme organised by the Press Club of Bangalore here, Mr. Naidu said the BJP would be protesting against the Congress-led UPA Government's failure to check the steep increase in the prices of essential commodities, betrayal of farmers, callous attitude towards internal security and divisive politics.

During the three-phased agitation, the party would first educate the public on the failures of the Government and later hold "yatras" and rallies in all the districts across the country.

In the third phase, during April and May, BJP workers would court arrest and stage "jail bharo" agitation. Even the Chief Ministers and Ministers of the BJP-ruled States would participate in "yatras" and rallies. However, they have been asked to stay away from the "jail bharo" agitation, Mr. Naidu said.

Judging performance

The UPA Government has completed half of its five-year term and it is a reasonable time to judge its performance.

Though the prices of essential commodities and life saving drugs have gone up by nearly 100 per cent, the Government has not come to the rescue of the common man, he alleged.

While prices of agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizers have increased, farmers are not getting remunerative prices for their produce. They have been driven to suicide, Mr. Naidu said.

Though the nation is under a great security threat, the Government has not taken steps to check terrorism and naxalism. It has to bring in a stringent law as an alternative to the defunct Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), he observed.

The senior BJP leader said the "divisive politics" practised by the Government would trigger demand for creating more Pakistans in the days to come.

After the communal head count in the Army, the Government is now going for communal reservation and this does not augur well for the country, he said.

Demanding execution of Afzal Guru, who has been convicted in the Parliament attack case, the BJP Yuva Morcha would collect one crore signatures and submit them to the President.

The party's SC/ST Morcha would collect signatures from one crore Dalits and submit it to the President, seeking reservation for SC/ST students in minority institutions, he said.

`No aspirants'

Mr. Naidu said there were no aspirants in the BJP for the prime minister's post. No discussion had taken place in the party about the contenders for the post and the media had quoted senior leader L.K. Advani out of context on the issue, he claimed.

He admitted that the party's image had been damaged as some leaders had gone to the media on the intra-party differences.

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