Bharatiya Janata Party national treasurer and MP Piyush Goel on Sunday criticised the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre for not protecting the international borders from our neighbouring countries and said that Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram should be blamed for such a situation as he cut funds for Defence.
Inaugurating the BJP Commerce and Industry Cell’s State convention here, Mr. Goel said that Mr. Chidambaram had two months ago slashed the expenditure on Defence modernisation and related sectors by a whopping Rs. 10,000 crore, when there was a great need for increasing it. In this situation, he said, the international borders were naturally not safe in the hands of the Congress-led Union government.
Killing soldier
The beheading an Indian solder on the Line of Control and refusal of the Pakistan government to hand over his head, he said, was a national shame.
This, he said, proved that the UPA government had failed to protect the lives of the people. New Delhi had attained the dubious distinction of being the rape capital of India, he said.
Mr. Goel charged the Centre with decline on all fronts, especially economy, and that the nation was in a state of concern, which called for bringing in a nationalistic government in New Delhi. He said that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was the only alternative for achieving this goal. The actual loss to the Central exchequer in the coal muddle was Rs. 5.5 lakh crore as the centre gave 44 leases of coal mines free.
Fuel prices
Mr. Goel said that the crude oil price in the international market was coming down and there was no reason for increasing the petrol and diesel prices. The government, he said, should not entangle itself in doing business, which was creating chaos in oil business. Similarly, he said, though the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was good, no assets were being created. It should concentrate on developing skill among the rural youths using the scheme.
He said that the Congress-led UPA utilised the robust economy built by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and failed to bring in more economic reforms.
The country registered a 9 per cent growth during NDA regime, it was 5.55 per cent now. Criticising Centre it for shelving the river linking project, he said it led to tensions between States for water as in the case of the Cauvery issue. He said States were flooded during rains and the water was drained into the sea, people suffered without water. However, Mr. Goel said that the BJP government in Karnataka had done well, though amid hiccups.
Industries outside Bangalore
Responding to State convener Rajendra Kumar’s memorandum, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said he was thinking of giving incentives to entrepreneurs, who set up industries in tier-II and tier-III cities.
Providing jobs to unemployed and increasing revenue to his government, were the twin objective of his budget, Mr. Shettar added. He would start deliberations on budget preparations from Monday.
Higher Education Minister C.T. Ravi admitted that the BJP rule faced internal problems and corruption, and assured that it would correct its mistakes, if the people voted it back to power in the coming Assembly elections. Cell national Convenor Arun Bansal and co convenor Trivikrama Joshi spoke.
