BJP Chief Ministers’ Conference

BJP governments' record
spectacular: Advaniji
From Our Special Correspondent

On December 12 BJP convened a one-day Conference of BJP Chief Ministers presided over by BJP President and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Shri Lal Krishna Advani at Party headquarters in 11, Ashok Road, New Delhi. Former Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, gave his margdarshan. Others who participated included Shri Jaswant Singh, Leader of BJP Parliamentary Party in Rajya Sabha, BJP Vice-President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu and other senior leaders. Apart from the five Chief Ministers, Shri Narendra Modi (Gujarat), Dr. Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), Smt. Vasundhara Raje Scindia (Rajasthan), Shri Arjun Munda (Jharkhand) and Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan (MP), Shri Sushil Modi Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and two ministers from Orissa where BJP is a partner in government. In his address Shri L. K. Advani, hailed the people’s verdict in Bihar that led to the extinction of Lalu-Rabri 'jungle raj' persisting for the last 15 years. He expressed confidence that Bihar under the leadership of Shri Nitish Kumar and Shri Sushil Modi will succeed in coming up to people’s expectations. He noted the very impressive strides made in recent years in BJP-ruled States and where BJP is a partner in progress with its allies in other States. In particular, he noted the report that in the first six months of the current financial year 80 percent of industrial investment in the country was in Gujarat State alone. Here is full text of Shri Advaniji’s speech.

I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to this important Conference of Chief Ministers. Since we met last there has been a change in the composition of this group. Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan has taken over as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, a state situated right in the heart of India and which occupies an important position in our polity. I am confident that under Shivraj-ji’s leadership the State will make impressive progress.

The other major event has occurred in Bihar. The results of the elections there are extremely significant not only because the Lalu – Rabri regime has been displaced and NDA has come to power, but also because they, hopefully, mark a departure from the caste based and mafia politics. The verdict in Bihar is for good governance and development. We expect that the new regime under the leadership of Shri Nitish Kumar and Shri Sushil Kumar Modi will succeed in reversing the downfall of Bihar experienced in the last 15 years. I extend a special welcome to Sushilji.

This is just a one-day conference but we have several important matters to discuss. So as to get the maximum time for substantive discussion, we are this time not having presentations by the Chief Ministers about their respective States. That, however, should not cloud the fact that the States under BJP’s rule and those in which we are partners of ruling coalitions have made very impressive strides in recent years. That is reflected in a dramatic improvement in the climate of investment in those States. The other day, I saw a news item that in the first six months of the current financial year 80 percent of industrial investment in the country occurred in the State of Gujarat. We are aware of the massive investment proposals taking shape in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa for steel production. All our States have shown maturity and wisdom in managing their finances. They have, to a significant extent, obliterated the deficits they inherited from the previous governments. At the same time, they have ensured that adequate outlays are provided for improvement in basic facilities, including power, roads and water supply. In fact, the situation of electricity supply has shown improvement in our States, even though in the central sector growth of power generation has slowed down. Our State governments have given great attention to poverty eradication through food for work programme and the Grameen Swarojgar Yojana. Thousands of self-help groups have been established, which have provided employment to the poorer sections and have contributed to the empowerment of women.

This conference takes place at a time when three of our state governments, namely Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh have just completed 2 years in office. This is a time for re-dedication to the massive tasks of development that are in front of us.

Unfortunately, the UPA alliance at the Centre is in a state of disarray. It is an uneasy alliance, with multiple power centers, in which jurisdictional definitions are hazy. That is reflected in the poor quality of governance, slippage in the security situation and weakening of the development thrust.

If we had a better Government at the Centre, this first decade of the twenty-first century could have proved to be as benign to India as the fifties and sixties were to the West. It may be recalled that when the West was relieved from its engagement in the Second World War, it got down to the task of development on the basis of the technological innovation that had taken place in the inter war period. The achievements of the fifties and the sixties laid the foundation for today’s prosperity in the West. Similarly, when the stifling hold of the permit and licence raj and the mind-set of State domination in the economic sphere loosened, India should have been able to thrust forward in the same manner in which the West did in the fifties and the sixties. The economic reforms were initiated in the early nineties as a response of necessity to the then prevailing serious situation of balance of payments; it will be wrong to view that as a proactive initiative of the then Congress Government. It is really the NDA Government that in its six years in office provided a strong fillip to those reforms. Massive initiatives were taken for the development of modern infrastructure. It is unfortunate that under the UPA Government, which suffers from an overload of the leftists, reforms have slowed down and outlays for the development of infrastructure and for eradication of poverty have been severely slashed. The Congress has always been comfortable with economic staticity and now that problem is compounded by its combination with the left’s archaic and outdated economic thinking.

In the first year of UPA’s rule, rural development expenditure has been slashed to an all-time low, as percentage of the net national product. A government which claims to have been elected to office with the support of aam adami has in its first year in office slashed the budgeted rural development expenditure to less than a third of the spending undertaken by NDA.

The document brought out by the Planning Commission for mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan shows that there has been a slow down in growth of crops and livestock. Prices of agricultural in-puts have increased while the out-put prices have declined. According to the National Accounts statistics the rural per capita food consumption has been declining. That is substantially the result of the reduction in expenditure on rural development and on poverty alleviation programmes. The rural distress today is both on the supply side and on the demand side.

The NDA government had established a whole host of schemes for alleviation of rural poverty, namely Swaran Jayanti Grameen Swarojgar Yojana, Sampurna Grameen Rojgar Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sarak Yojana, etc. It had reinforced the ongoing scheme of Indira Awas Yojana. Similarly, schemes to alleviate poverty in urban areas were also started. Huge amounts of money were provided for all those schemes. It is unfortunate that in the last one and half years, the UPA government has been long on rhetoric, but it has been short in committing financial support necessary for the proper implementation of the various poverty alleviation schemes.

We, as the principal opposition party at the Centre, have a duty to build pressure on the Government so that the initiatives taken in our time are not permitted to weaken. As a ruling party in a number of States it is also our responsibility to see that in the States under our charge we do our best to provide good governance and to enhance the tempo of development. I believe that the deliberations at this conference will help us in that direction.