The Hindu : National : BJP blames it on ‘weak leadership’

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National

BJP blames it on ‘weak leadership’

Special Correspondent

Accuses Left of imposing its agenda on UPA government

BJP economic resolution focuses on inflation
Slams Congress for an “opportunistic alliance”

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party here on Monday blamed the Centre’s “weak leadership” and “internal strife” between the Congress and its supporting Left parties for an economic mess that has seen rising prices and an erosion of purchasing power of the poor as well as the middle classes.

The party adopted a five-page economic resolution that focussed mainly on inflation and criticised the Congress for forming an “opportunistic alliance” on the strength of a “negative ideology” of keeping the BJP out. It singled out the communist parties for “blackmailing” the Government and said Left parties had “enforced their own agenda” and the Common Minimum Programme of the Government had been “devoured by the Communist Party of India-Marxist.”

The resolution admitted that by the end of six years of National Democratic Alliance rule in May 2004, the price of petrol per litre for Indian consumers was Rs. 30.25 (when the price of international crude was less than $40 per barrel), but blamed the Manmohan Singh government for current domestic price of Rs. 47 per litre (when international crude prices have been hovering around $130 per barrel). The party charged that the Government had increased its revenue from petroleum products from Rs. 70,000 crore in 2004 to Rs. 1,70,000 crore in 2007-08.

At one place in the resolution the party praised the Prime Minister for his tenure as Finance Minister of the Narasimha Rao government, saying that he had “liberated” the Indian economy from the “clutches of socialist bondage.” But, later it found fault with his “weak leadership” for giving in to the “blackmail” by the Left. The emphasis throughout the resolution was on the inability of the UPA to control prices that were hurting the people, with inflation above 8 per cent whereas during the NDA rule inflation had dropped from 6.5 per cent in 2002-03 to 4.6 per cent in 2003-04.

While claiming credit for reaching a 8.5 per cent growth rate in its last year in office, the party found fault with the UPA’s record of 9 per cent growth for three consecutive years by pointing out that China had performed better.

“Directionless politics of the UPA had derailed the economy,” the resolution said. The BJP said that in the interests of the ‘aam admi’, the UPA government should quit office.

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