NEW DELHI, Nov. 14
If the BJP had its way, the Congress would not even be
contesting the Nov. 25 Assembly elections.
Outraged at its "daring" to criticise the BJP Government's
performance, the ruling party today questioned its main
adversary's "moral right to seek votes" after it had "ruled
and ruined" the country for nearly five decades.
"The sins of the last 45 years deserve a more severe
punishment," party spokesperson M Venkaiah Naidu told
newspersons today, while dismissing the Congress manifesto
for the Assembly elections as "an amazing compilation of
lies and hoaxes masquerading as facts and promises."
In a point-by-point rebuttal of the "fiction" propagated
against it, the BJP tried to turn the tables on the Congress
by raking up the "fact" of the Congress's track record of
"scams, scandals, misrule and malgovernance," particularly
while rejecting the charge that the ruling party was unable
to govern or manage the economy or the prices.
The BJP's long tirade against the Congress was summed up
when it countered the latter's claim of providing good and
ethical governance. "The Congress is a morally-bankrupt
party of middlemen and criminals. It is a party that
survives on venality and thrives on corruption. It is a
party that has said goodbye to ethics the day India became
independent. It is a party that has systematically destroyed
all institutions of governance. It is a party that is
associated with all that plagues Indian polity, society and
economy. Yet the Congress has the gall to talk of good
governance, ethical governance," said an outraged Mr Naidu.
Sticking to its two main concrete achievements of Pokhran-II
and the resolution of the Cauvery dispute, the BJP refused
to accept blame for any problem that the country was facing
today. The Congress charge that the country was witnessing
"drift, dissension and discord" under the BJP rule was
readily associated with the Congress itself, it retaliated
whether it was in relation to the caste and communal
violence, separation or terrorism, particularly in Kashmir.
It contested the Congress charges of a deepening economic
disaster and skyrocketing prices, including those of onions,
by citing statistics and presenting a price list of various
items during the Congress regime. Even the onion crisis was
attributed to the Congress failure to include the item in
the ESMA so that the Act could not be used effectively to
prevent hoarding. The 24-hour artificial salt crisis was
also a Congress creation Mr Naidu charged.
Denouncing the charge that the BJP was overseeing rising
crime atrocities against women and weaker sections of
society and unchecked corruption, the BJP dwelt at
considerable length on the Congress' cash and carry and
suitcase culture" in which, it charged, close associates of
the Nehru-Gandhi family were also involved and the various
scams and scandals in its rule ranging from the Sarla Mishra
episode and the rape of the nuns, the "tandoor kand" and the
anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. The riots were also used to
deflect the Congress charge that the BJP and its sinister
sister organisations were spreading communal discord.
Sarcastic in his reaction to the Sonia Gandhi-Jyoti Basu
bonhomie, Mr Naidu said that the two parties were "natural
allies" and "partners in the ruination of the country. "
According to him, "they have nothing to lose except their
past and nothing to choose except the kursi".
Mr Naidu also dismissed poll surveys forecasting the BJP's
defeat in Delhi and Rajasthan by claiming that the party had
its own poll reports that made them confident that they
would win. He also refused to accept that there was any
infighting in the BJP in Delhi.