New Delhi, May 3
In a determined effort to dismantle
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s stability plank, former Prime Minister
V.P. Singh today claimed that the Congress- run governments had been more
credible and stable and asked the secular groups to join hands to stop the NDA
from returning to power.
“Who can beat the record of the Congress in providing
the longest number of stable governments at the Centre and states,” he asked.
The track record of West Bengal in giving a stable government is more convincing
than the one given by the Vajpayee government at the Centre, he told newspersons
during a press conference at his house.
Asking what was so special about the
Vajpayee government in terms of proving stability, Mr V.P. Singh said the
Congress-run governments had been more credible than the BJP which contributed
to the fall of his government in 1989 and the National Front government in 1990.
In 1996, they could not continue for more than 13 days and again for not more
than 13 months.
The Congress had learnt by now learnt the necessity of running
a coalition government. The stability could be provided by evolving a common
minimum programme (CMP), he suggested.
Making light of Mr Vajpayee’s assertion
that the Congress was alone in the present election milieu and was hunting for
allies, Mr V.P. Singh said, “This is far from the truth. The Congress has made
more formidable allies in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and in
other places.”
“The stability of the Vajpayee government is inimical not only
to society and the poor but also the nation because of its politics of hatred
and divisiveness.”
Mr V.P. Singh, who was the Finance Minister in the Rajiv
Gandhi government and had strained relations with Rajiv Gandhi for more than a
decade, came out openly in support of the Congress saying that not only would he
“vote for the Congress” but also appeal to the countrymen to pool all their
efforts to oust the “fascist” BJP-led government at the Centre.
Stating that
the need of the hour was a change of government, Mr V.P. Singh quoted the
Mahabharata and said though Arjuna was reluctant to wage a war against the
Kauravas, Lord Krishna said, “No, you have to fight to bring about a
change.”
Mr Vajpayee’s appeal for maintaining the status quo and stress on
stability could not be endorsed at the present juncture with farmers committing
suicide, factories having closed down, weavers in ruins and unemployment having
risen to an alarming proportion, he said.
Armed with statistics to debunk the
NDA’s India Shining campaign, Mr V.P. Singh said 50 per cent of the country’s
population did not have access to standard nourishment. “When people are
hungry, how can they feel good? There is no place for the common people in their
campaign. The India Shining campaign is essentially for the corporate sector and
the rich people, because it talks of foreign direct investment, GDP and the
sensex and not the people.”
The employment growth had slid down from 2.7 per
cent to 1.7 per cent, shattering the promise of providing 10 million jobs per
year. The revenue deficit had risen to 6.7 per cent in 2002-02 from 4.2 per cent
in 1990-91 and interest payment from 23 per cent to 34 per cent during the
Vajpayee regime, highlighting the failings of the Vajpayee government, he
added.
During the NDA rule, industrial production had gone down and speculative
money had rolled in from foreign investors who control 45 per cent shares in the
Bombay Stock Exchange. Still worse, several profit-making PSUs were sold off, he
said, adding that all these harsh facts made the feel-good propaganda a “big
failure.”
“The India Shining campaign and the Bharat Uday Yatra have not
clicked as a result of which the BJP is now frustrated and nervous. Their false
propaganda did not match the ground realities.
“Out of frustration and
nervousness, the BJP has now roped in the RSS and its affiliated organisations
and leaders like Narendra Modi to catch the imagination of the voters in Uttar
Pradesh in the last two phases of polling,” he said.
Mr V.P. Singh, who spoke
at length on various issues connected with the poll, said the BJP’s bogey of
Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin had not clicked. “The BJP is raising the issue for
political purposes only, but that too has not clicked.”
While there could be a
debate over whether the people with foreign origin could be granted Indian
citizenship or not but there could not be two types of citizenship — the
reliable and an unreliable citizenship,” he emphasised.
When the Supreme Court
has already settled the issue of Ms Gandhi... why the BJP is raking it up at
all? What stand will it take on the issue in countries like Mauritius, Fiji and
Sierra Leone? he asked.
“I am told the mother of the Rajasthan Chief Minister
is from Nepal”, he said, referring to the prospects of Rahul and
Priyanka.
Giving instances of the BJP’s stand on Ayodhya, Article 370, Uniform
Civil Code and its latest emphasis on Hindu-Muslim unity, Mr V.P. Singh said the
RSS’s political wing sought to play the “greatest fraud on the people of the
country.”
Questioning the role of the BJP during the country’s independence
struggle, Mr V.P. Singh wanted to know the name of a single person associated
with the Sangh Parivar who had contributed towards the cause of freedom or made
any sacrifice.
On a question regarding his crusade on the Bofors issue, the
former Prime Minister appeared “a little offended”. The questioner could read
his article written sometime ago in a leading English daily, he quipped.
Asked
whether he regretted getting the support of the BJP in running his government in
1989, Mr V.P. Singh said, “Yes, after the Gujarat incident I do regret.”
On who
should lead the alternative government at the Centre, Ms Sonia Gandhi or Mr
Mulayam Singh Yadav, he sought to avoid the question saying if he were the panch
(referee), he would have been in a better position to tell.
