The Hindu : We have kept our word on providing jobs: PM

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

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We have kept our word on providing jobs: PM

By Harish Khare

New Delhi March. 3. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today insisted that his Government was neither partisan in the matter of drought relief nor divisive in fighting terrorism at home. Also his Government had more or less fulfilled the National Democratic Alliance's promise of providing one crore jobs a year.

Replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the motion of thanks on the President's address, Mr. Vajpayee said India's stance of confrontation, vis-à-vis, Pakistan had achieved its "objective", without the country having to go to war with Pakistan.

It was Mr. Vajpayee's first major speech in this budget session. And for the most part, he was on the backfoot, speaking as he was a day after the BJP's rout in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly election. The Himachal verdict's psychological shadow could be discerned, as the treasury benches were decidedly subdued while the Congress members were in a buoyant mood.

Interestingly enough, the Prime Minister provided no aid or comfort to the "mandir crowd", as he did not make any reference to the Ayodhya controversy. Nor did he say anything on the issue of banning cow slaughter — an issue on which some BJP leaders had been itching to challenge the Congress.

It seemed that Mr. Vajpayee was out to refute the criticism that the Centre was "discriminatory" towards the non-NDA State Governments in helping them to cope with the severe drought situation. In particular, he dealt adequately with the Congress leader, Sonia Gandhi's charge of "step-motherly" treatment of Rajasthan. He told the House that Rajasthan had been given 29 lakh tonnes of foodgrains, about 44 per cent of the entire Central assistance to all the States. He asserted that the mode of assistance under various schemes to Rajasthan was as per the "special package" demanded by the State Government. He hastened to add that it was not an act of charity on the part of the Centre; for him, this "non-discriminatory approach" was a matter of political honesty.

On the economic front, Mr. Vajpayee patted his Government for the foreign exchange reserve of $75 billion, a figure higher than that of France or Germany. He said this bespoke of a "climate conducive for international investment".

The climate was attractive to foreign investors despite the tension with Pakistan, which was "not of our making". It was necessary for India to flex its muscles after the attack on Parliament House, he said and bemoaned that the U.S. had not been able to make Pakistan deliver on its promise of ending cross-border terrorism. Significantly, Mr. Vajpayee added that India had "noted" this American "weakness" and it would be factored in while assessing in future Washington's word.

Challenged by the Opposition benches as to what happened to his promise of "decisive war" (aar-paar ki larai), the Prime Minister gave a literary spin to his December 13, 2001 words. He clarified that all that he had said was that "it would be a decisive war, if it came to fighting". Mr. Vajpayee claimed that the "objective" had been achieved even without a war.

Referring to the recent Non-Aligned Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Vajpayee told the House that India's stand on terrorism was widely endorsed. He quoted at length from the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad's formulation on terrorism, which rejected the clash of civilisations thesis as well debunked the thesis that the Muslims were synonymous with terrorism.

Mr. Vajpayee picked up an argument with the Opposition on his Government's performance on employment creation. Refuting Ms. Gandhi's charge that the NDA had failed to keep up its promise of creating one crore jobs a year, he challenged the Opposition for a debate and argued that the promise was not to create one crore "government jobs" but jobs in public and private sectors.

Finally, Mr. Vajpayee rejected the Opposition charge that the Government was using terrorism to polarise the society. He cautioned against making such sweeping allegations, which could be used by external forces to the country's disadvantage.

After the Prime Minister's reply, the motion of thanks was adopted by a voice vote.

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