NEW DELHI: The BJP leadership has directed its
workers to get ready for a mass-contact programme
on the planks of India's `self-respect' and
empowerment of women.
The top party leadership which has of late
discussed the plan of going back to the masses to
tap the popular mood after the first few months
of the BJP-led coalition government, has
considered the issues to be highlighted for the
campaign.
According to a source, they are of the view that
despite the build- up by the VHP on the Ayodhya
front, the temple issue will not be able to evoke
the same response as in 1991.
``Our electoral history shows that the same issue
cannot have the equally effective if used for the
second time,'' a senior BJP functionary said
hinting that Ayodhya cannot be the focal point
again if the party was looking for a plank for
either the November Assembly elections or snap
polls at a later date.
Party general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu has made
it clear that the party might favour projecting
the Pokhran explosions as well as its effort to
get the Bill for women's reservations passed.
He is of the view that if the party projects the
Pokhran blasts as the singular achievement of the
Vajpayee government, its effort to introduce the
women's quota Bill too should evoke appreciation
particularly from the women. For the party the
constituency that the Bill could make an appeal
to, is large enough - 400 million women.
``In any campaign the nuclear blasts are sure to
feature and our efforts to empower the women are
likely to be appreciated by the people,'' he
said. Clearly the Pokhran explosions and the
subsequent global sanctions imposed on India have
brought the focus on the theme of self-respect.
BJP president Kushabhau Thakre significantly said
on Saturday that there was a need for the party
to launch a campaign to counter the opposition to
the women's reservations from other political
parties. He termed the role of a section of
Opposition in stalling the introduction of the
Bill as unfortunate and undemocratic.
Addressing a meeting of the BJP women's wing, Mr
Thakre urged the party activists to start a
campaign to expose the Opposition and how the
Bill would have benefited the women. He hoped
that the Bill would be passed by Parliament.
The BJP president discounted the possibility of
the Vajpayee government being toppled and said
that in the present scenario no other party was
in a situation to form an alternative government.