BJP Chief Minister's Conference

BJP Chief Ministers' Conference
New Delhi - September 11-12, 2004

Points on the speech of Sh. L.K. Advani, M.P.
Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha

1967 Bhopal Ministers' Meeting: In 1967 the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) came in power in governance for the first time. This process of evaluation of government began then in the form of the Bhopal Ministers' Meeting. After that the BJS was mainly in the opposition.

Formation of BJP: With the formation o the BJP in 1980, in its first inaugural meeting in Mumbai, Sh. Chhagla ji had said that people thought that there no alternative to the Congress. However, in Mumbai on that day, with the formation of the BJP an alternative to the Congress had been presented to the people of India.

Atalji's statement in 1980: At the time, Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had postulated the following 3 points for the party:

1. Sanghathan ki chinta (Look after the organization)
2. Sangharsh ka karya (Continue the activism)
3. Sanrachna ka karya (Construtive activities)

Good governance: Advaniji then added a 4th point "Sushaashan" (Good governance), and added that evaluation of governmental activities was an on-going activity towards achieving and maintaining good governance.

National Security: Sh. Advani then expressed concern towards the deteriorating Law & Order situation in the country. He told the assembly that in the book "Clash of Civilization" the issue of the continuation of an American identity was expressed, and the same correlated with the division of Russia. People then questioned about the same danger for India. Sh. Advani then added that India was strong because of her "Sanskrutik Rashtrawad" (Cultural Nationalism), and added that its Cultural Nationalism was historic and old. He reaffirmed his faith in Cultural Nationalism and asked the assembly never to be apologetic on the issue of nationalism and on national security. He told the assembly that before 9/11 the US Superstore chain Walmart was selling 6,000 US flags per day, however his number jumped to 2,50,000 on 9/11. However, raising the National flag was being mistakenly being related by the Congress governments as creating law & order problem. He expressed grave concern at the emerging administrative attitude to condone groups that talk about communal tension on the issue of raising the national flag.

Issue of Karnataka government & its 10 year old case against Uma Bharti:
Sh. Advani expressed surprise at the decision of the Congress government first to cancel its desire to withdraw the 10-year old case against Uma Bhartiji, then arrest her, and then again change its mind and withdraw the old case. He informed the assembly about the statement issued by the Karnataka government lawyer in court while arguing against Uma Bhartiji. The Karnataka Government lawyer had informed the court that after being released Uma Bharti and the BJP would undertake a "Tiranga Yatra", and that this Tiranga Yatra would lead to possible Law & Order problem.

Sh. Advaniji expressed surprise again at this logic of communal tension being reasoned on an issue of national flag. He reminded the assembly that the Congress government was actively working in creating this myth and fear in the hearts of people, when in reality in the Idgah matter it was the Anjuman-Islam itself that was now hoisting the national flag at the Idgah ground.

Illegal immigration: Sh. Advani spoke on the dangers that illegal Bangladeshi immigration was causing to national security in India, and appealed to the government to develop strategies to fight this. He said that the governments both at the state as well as the centre must take positive steps in identifying illegal immigrants into India, and expedite their deportation. The government must enact laws if needed, to plug any loopholes in our system.

Open government: Sh. Advani spoke on the need for an open government, and envisaged a quadruple feedback strategy towards the same.

a. MLAs: He asked the Chief Ministers to take into account the opinion of the party's MLAs, and what their views were about the government's performance.

b. Bureaucracy: He mentioned the importance of the bureaucracy in administration, and expressed the desire that the BJP governments continue to take regular feedback from the bureaucracy on how it viewed the government's performance.

c. Party: There was an urgent need to take feedback from local party, and associated organizations about state government performance.

d. Public: The most important feedback was the feedback from the public, and hence a mechanism be evolved to assess public opinion about governmental performance on a regular basis.