The Hindu : BJP to approach Minister on fertilizer subsidy cut

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 04, 2003

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National

BJP to approach Minister on fertilizer subsidy cut

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI MARCH. 3. The Bharatiya Janata Party will be approaching the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, to reconsider the question of cuts in fertilizer subsidy announced by him while presenting the budget for 2003-04.

The issue is expected to be raised by many MPs at the BJP parliamentary party meeting tomorrow. The view is that cuts in fertilizer subsidy have sent out a "wrong political message" of the party being anti-farmer.

It seems that although Mr. Singh had justified the cuts by pointing out that the subsidy was being pocketed by the fertilizer industry and was not benefiting the farmer, the BJP is not satisfied. The party would like him to restore the subsidy cuts and "find a way to ensure that the subsidy reaches the farmer directly," the party spokesperson, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said today.

It was a substantial cut in subsidy and especially after the party's defeat in Himachal Pradesh and several key Assembly elections due later this year, the BJP is in no mood to take any risk, according to party leaders. The BJP is confident that it will be able to have its way with Mr. Singh.

About the election results, Mr. Malhotra was unhappy that the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, had described the BJP's defeat in Himachal as a "defeat of Hindutva". Identifying Hindutva with Hinduism, he said her comment was "shameful".

He said the BJP had won a handful of seats in Nagaland (where it had fought the elections in alliance with several parties and groups) and Meghalaya and therefore, "Hindutva had not been rejected". If the BJP had lost Himachal, the Congress had lost its Government in Nagaland, he added.

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