Press Statement issued by BJP National President
Shri Rajnath Singh

Chennai

Price rise :

The UPA government has unleashed inflation as an un-legistated tax on the ordinary people.

The NDA government had built huge rice and wheat stocks during its tenure. This helped to tackle inflation and shortages.

For example in the year 2002-03, the grain production fell to just 174 million tons as against the normal production of over 200 million tons. Because the government had built stocks of 65 million tons there was no shortage of food grains or inflation. Had the government not built such huge stocks there could have been starvation.

In fact we exported wheat and rice in 2001/2 [4.68 Million Tons] 2002/3 [12.46 MMT] and 2003/04 [10.3 MMT]

But maintaining high stocks was criticised by many as wasteful. But that is what saved the country then and even later.

The UPA government’s failure to procure adequate grain stock in 2004/5 was the reason why shortages resulted in 2005 itself. Despite the experience of 2002/3 Sri Chidambaram in his budget speech of 2004/5 told the nation that the country has achieved food surplus and that the farmers should switch to floriculture and horticulture!

The effect was that the UPA government could not maintain the normal buffer stock of wheat from July 2005 to January 2008 for which figures are available till now. Buffer stock is the minimum stock needed for insurance against starvation. It is not anti-inflationary stock. It is only the NDA government which had built anti-inflationary stocks.

The UPA government must bear the full responsibility for the present food crisis and inflation.

Agricultural loan waiver :

The loan waiver is a disaster. Still the FM has to tell the nation where from he got the figure of Rs 60000 crores: he is still to tell the country where from he will get the money to accomplish the waiver. Most media has exposed the waiver as a deception. The amount of waiver involved is, according to un-denied reports only Rs 23000 crores. The reports also cite the RBI data to show that only less than half of the farmers took loans, and in that most of them borrowed from private lenders and of the bank borrowers 70% of them paid back their loans and only a small minority delayed the payment. So the so called benefit to the farmers is very minimal.

Compare the loan waiver, which is a one in a life time benefit to the poor farmers, and Income tax waiver for rich people. The loan waiver per head is Rs 4500 and the tax waiver for those who have Rs 2 lac income is over Rs 6000 at the minimum and the waiver for those whose income is Rs 20 lacs is – believe it – Rs 49500! It makes mockery of the claim that it is a farmers' budget.

Investigation into Rajiv Gandhi assassination :

Being in Tamil Nadu I recall with pain the way Shri Rajiv Gandhi and 17 others were brutally assassinated on 21 May 1991. Most inquiries have pointed to some unseen hand in the heinous crime. Sonia Gandhi had in 1998 brought down the United Front government on the issue that the DMK which Soniaji then suspected to be part of the conspiracy was in the government. When the NDA was in power it had constituted a Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency to unearth the conspiracy angle to the murder. The MDMA had sent letters rogatory to 27 countries to pursue the case when the NDA was in power.

Now it is over 4 years since the UPA came to power. But not a word on the MDMA progress as yet. It is surprising that with Soniaji in full command of the UPA government nothing is happening about the Rajiv assassination conspiracy investigation. I demand that the UPA come out with what is progress in the investigation.

Appeal to the Chief Minister on Rama Sethu issue :

I appeal to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Kalaigner M Karunanidhi to re-engineer the Rama Sethu project and implement it without affecting the Rama Sethu which is a symbol of national unity and also a cultural bridge with Srilanka, apart from its association with the name of Sri Rama who is revered by crores of ordinary people cutting across all barriers in the country.

The BJP stands by its commitment to implement the Sethu Project without harming the Rama Sethu.

Anti Dalit and Anti Poor face of UPA :

Although the UPA Government makes tall claims about the upliftment of Dalits and poor but it has been thoroughly exposed in these four years. It resorts to mere tokenism when it comes to formulation of policies and allocation of funds.

In the Union Budget of 2008-09 the UPA Government did not allocate adequate funds for the welfare of Scheduled Castes. Under the Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) it is mandatory for the Government to earmark budget according to the proportion of the SC population, which stands 16.2 percent of the total population of the country.

The total budget allocation Under Plan outlay for 2008-09 is Rs 2, 43, 385.5 crore and under the SCSP plan the UPA Government was bound to allocate Rs 40090.90 crore exclusively for Dalits. But it allocated only Rs 11715.9 crore for the welfare of Scheduled Castes which fall Rs 28, 375.9 crore short of the mandatory SCSP outlay.

Out of 75 Departments/ Ministries only 7 ministries have allocated substantial funds for SC welfare whereas the remaining 68 ministries have much less allocations and in some cases even zero allocations.

It is the worst kind of betrayal as the Scheduled Castes have been betrayed by the Congress led regimes ever since Independence.