NEW DELHI, 31 July — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government has been given a clear warning by his own Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to pull up its socks on economic, political and diplomatic fronts, analysts say.
BJP leaders attending a national executive meeting here that ended on Sunday took a tough stand against free-market economic policies being pursued by New Delhi.
For the first time since Vajpayee became prime minister in 1998, party leaders, rather than members of its fringe groups, were openly critical of some aspects of the economic liberalization. And many were equally candid in expressing displeasure about the government’s handling of the July 15-16 Agra meeting between Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Stunned, Vajpayee, in an obvious to placate the BJP leaders, hit out at Musharraf publicly, emphasizing how he had humiliated the Pakistani leader when he was all set to return home from Agra on the night of July 16. “I did not even give him a photo opportunity in the end. He went home with a long face,” the prime minister said, speaking extempore.
The remarks, in complete contrast to a drab statement on the Agra summit he made in parliament last week, predictably pleased most BJP delegates. One of them said: “We were delighted to hear Vajpayee.” While many leaders appeared happy with Vajpayee’s anti-Musharraf tirade, some were contemptuous of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh who was said to be eager for further talks with Pakistan.
But it was on the economic front that the BJP delegates really came out strongly against the government. Political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan said, “The BJP meet is a clear warning to the government. The general mood at the meeting was to give a hard pinch to the government.”
Most members’ ire was reserved for the decision of the state-run mutual fund Unit Trust of India (UTI) to freeze redemptions of its flagship US-64 scheme, hitting hard some 20 million middle class investors - the support base of the BJP. Senior BJP leader Bhairon Singh Shekhawat openly blamed the government for the UTI fiasco.
Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha came under repeated attack at the meeting, and had to defend himself. Some delegates criticized the government for allegedly not checking inflation. A few leaders feared that the government policies could negatively affect the BJP’s prospect in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state that will soon elect a new government. Another political expert G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said: “The BJP meet gives a strong message to the government that the honeymoon period is over.
Home Minister L.K. Advani, number two in the Cabinet, told party workers at the weekend to behave like members of “the ruling party” and “shed their old mindset of being in the opposition.”
“Advani’s statement was clearly a warning to workers to stop criticizing the government in public,” said Kiran Saxena, a professor of political science at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. The party meeting also proposed a harder line on readmitting coalition allies who have broken away from the BJP-dominated ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
“The smaller parties in the coalition of late have been putting considerable pressure on the BJP. By laying down some rules, the BJP is increasing its clout,” Saxena said.
