The former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and Rajya Sabha member M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that the passage of the Lokpal Bill alone will not suffice to wipe out corruption in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
“What is needed is a strong political will to act against corruption, which the UPA government or the Congress party is visibly lacking in,” Mr. Naidu said. He was speaking to presspersons before leaving the State after completing a three-day campaign programme for the BJP candidates in Kerala.
Maintaining that any other Prime Minister other than Mr. Manmohan Singh would have stepped down if faced with similar charges of corruption against his ministry, Mr. Naidu said Mr. Singh and the UPA government without much delay would have to bow down to the demand from the people to quit. Predicting that a “second JP movement was in the offing” against the Congress-led government, Mr. Naidu said the Prime Minister would have no other go but to step down owing to public pressure. “I can visualise a mass movement gaining momentum against the most corrupt government after Independence in the country,” he said.
Criticising both the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front in Kerala for “standing in the way of people's developmental dreams,” Mr. Naidu said they were two sides of the same coin. “Both these fronts have pathetically failed to live up to the expectation of the people in the State,” he said, alleging that misrule by them had reversed development in a big way. Citing examples from the Planning Commission's report on development, Mr. Naidu said Kerala which was seventh earlier in terms of development in the country had been pushed to the 17t{+h} position.
Mr. Naidu said food security of the State was also seriously affected by the misrule. “The acreage of agricultural land depleted from 18 lakh to eight lakh in the State over the past several years,” he said. Agricultural growth was an abysmal 2.5 per cent.
The BJP would be an effective alternative to both the “failed fronts,” he said, exuding confidence that the party would open its account in the Assembly in an impressive manner.
Mr. Naidu expressed apprehension of the two fronts joining hands secretly to prevent the BJP's entry into the Assembly. “They have been doing it earlier and they may do it this time also, but we are increasingly confident of a win this time,” he said.
