The Hindu : BJP grip over Govt. total: CPI

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 05, 2002

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BJP grip over Govt. total: CPI

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 4 . The Communist Party of India (CPI) has written an epitaph for the National Democratic Alliance, declaring that the Bharatiya Janata Party has taken over it.

Commenting on a series of developments culminating in the elevation of L.K. Advani as the Deputy Prime Minister and the latest Cabinet reshuffle, the party said: ``The NDA lies dead and buried, unhonoured, unwept and unsung. What remains is the battered signboard, which the BJP spokesman can point to on occasions, to deflect criticism.'' The viewpoint was reflected in an editorial by the CPI general secretary, A.B. Bardhan, in the latest issue of the party organ New Age.

After the reshuffle, the BJP now had 56 Ministers, other than the Prime Minister, while the allies did not add up to more than 20 and that these numbers or the relative strength of numbers in each had nothing to do with the ratio that prevailed within the coalition. Barring the Defence Ministry, the vital and crucial departments were all in the BJP's hands. ``Thus, the grip of the BJP over the Government is now total. It is the BJP, and the BJP alone, which calls the shots. There is no nonsense about consulting its allies in the NDA. They have now been shunted out or cast off as needless burden. There has, of course, been some `consultations'. But they were all with the heads of the `mother' organisation — the RSS.''

On the NDA agenda, the editorial said that to the critics it was said the BJP was bound by it while the RSS faithfuls were told to wait till the party got a majority. ``Then you will have the complete and unabridged BJP agenda,'' it said adding that if there was any trace of the latter coming into the open, the BJP spokesman would immediately disown it, while winking at the RSS, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and others in Sangh Parivar.

``But for some time now, there is nothing to hide, and no attempt to hide. The RSS/BJP real agenda is out in the open. They do not care to hide it any longer. They do not have to hide it any longer for, the situation now is desperate and calls for a fight without any gloves on.''

The party said the NDA had served its purpose. The 23 or 24 allies and groups were needed for making up the game of numbers, and climbing to power. ``A wishy-washy agenda had to be worked up for deceiving the gullible sections of people for silencing the conscience of all those coalition partners, who were secular in outlook and knew that they were joining hands with an out and out reactionary communal party wedded to its aggressive Hindutva philosophy, only to gain a couple of ministerial chairs and share in power at the throne of Delhi''.

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