New Delhi, March 3
The ‘Bharat uday yatra’ of Deputy
Prime Minister L.K. Advani will go ahead as planned as there was no violation of
the Model Code of Conduct, Bharatiya Janata Party asserted today.
Responding to
the objections by the Congress and other Opposition parties to Mr Advani’s
yatra, BJP spokesman Pramod Mahajan described the objections as “hollow and
ridiculous”.
Referring to Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Laloo Prasad Yadav’s
implicit threat to ‘stop’ the uday yatra in Patna, the BJP leader said the party
would accept his challenge and go ahead with its scheduled programme. He
reminded Mr Yadav that the last time he stopped Mr Advani’s Ram rath yatra, the
V.P. Singh government lost power at the Centre.
“This time it might be the
turn of the RJD-ruled Bihar government,” the BJP leader pointed out.
There was
nothing in the election laws and electoral code of conduct which went against Mr
Advani’s yatra, he said. He added, “It is an election rally undertaken by Mr
Advani to highlight the development achieved by the country during the past five
years,” he said.
None could object to it. On the contrary, posing an obstacle
to the poll campaign is prohibited by the Model Code of Conduct, he said.
Mr
Mahajan said the Congress seemed to have objections to the words ‘Bharat’ and
‘uday’. No political party could have any patent over these words and his party
too would not object if the Congress were to name the road show of its leader
Sonia Gandhi as ‘Bharat uday road show’.
Asked if the BJP was aware of the law
and order consequences of undertaking the yatra in view of the past experience,
Mr Mahajan said law and order was a state subject and the states would provide
protection to the yatra. He wondered how rallies on national development could
pose law and order problems.
He said the Congress and other opposition parties
did not have any programme and agenda for facing the elections. While Ms Gandhi
was not keen to be the leader of the coalition parties, the Congress was
insisting that she alone would be the leader of the coalition.
Asked about the
notices served to the government by the Delhi High Court seeking details on the
‘India Shining’ campaign, the BJP general secretary said his party had no locus
standi in the case. The government would file the details before the court.
However, it was part of the Rs 100 crore India Development Initiative approved
by Parliament in the last year’s Budget.
In a separate statement, BJP
Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the objection to the
Yatra was ‘disrespectful’ to the spirit of democracy. Practically all chief
ministers of the Congress had undertaken such yatras in their states for
electoral campaign.
“If the Congress can justify the road show of its Congress
President, how can it object to Mr Advani’s uday yatra?,” he asked.
