Topic started by Surya (@ adsl-64-166-143-81.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net) on Fri Apr 16 23:06:42 EDT 2004.
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what is wrong in voting for BJP?
After becoming the Prime Minister of India in March 1998, Shri Atalji has written one of the proudest chapters in the post-Independence history of India. To the entire democratic world, he has presented a model of how to successfully run a coalition government of over twenty parties. The people have seen how he has steered the ship of the nation through troubled waters with courage, confidence, and wisdom. He is seen as a “Great Unifier”, who can take all sections of our diverse society in the common endeavour for nation-building. He has ended the costly era of the Congress party’s destabilization by making India an abode of stability and good governance. Between 1985 and 1998, India had seven Prime Ministers. However, during the past six years, India has had only one Prime Minister.
Shri Atalji’s is already the third longest tenure as Prime Minister, after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. He is the only non-Congress Prime Minister who has never depended on Congress support for occupying the country’s highest executive office. He has thus demolished the Congress party’s self-serving myth that it alone can provide a stable government at the Centre and only a person from the Nehru dynasty can provide leadership to the country. Today the common perception among the people about Shri Atalji is: “Pradhan Mantri ho to aisa”.
India’s standing in the world at an all-time high
Under his visionary leadership, India has recorded historic achievements in national security, socio-economic development, and foreign policy. Making India a nuclear weapons power, winning the Kargil War, containing cross-border terrorism, bringing about a turnaround in the situation in Jammu & Kashmir, and putting the North-Eastern region on a path of peace and development – all these testify to the high caliber and competence of Shri Atalji’s leadership.
Given Pakistan’s long record of hostility towards India, it seemed impossible that any change in its policies or attitude would ever be possible. Yet, our Statesman-Prime Minister persisted with his sincere search for peace with Pakistan, never deviating from our basic principles and never adopting a position of weakness. Pakistan has had to declare that it will not allow its territory for terrorist activities against India. Today India’s stature and prestige in the international arena has risen to an all-time high.
“Our five years versus Their fifty years”
During the past five years India has made unprecedented progress towards prosperity. Increasingly, the world is talking about India as an economic powerhouse. The NDA Government’s performance in diverse fields of development outshines those of the previous governments. This has prompted ordinary people to make the comparison between “BJP’s five years versus Congress’ fifty years”. For example, the Rs. 54,000-crore National Highway Development Project and the Rs. 60,000-crore Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana are NDA Government’s response to the prolonged neglect of the road infrastructure in the past.
Similarly, never in the past were as many as 1.5 crore poor families given sufficient quantities of rice and wheat at such low prices as under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is the largest educational program since Independence, ensuring that no child is deprived of elementary education.
The Rs. 10,000-crore Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana is the largest Food-for-Work program since Independence. The housing sector has witnessed the biggest ever boom in the past five years. Never in the past had housing for weaker sections of society received so much focused attention as now. The Government has launched major schemes for drinking water, rural sanitation, slum improvement, and control of communicable diseases. The Government has unveiled a new fund of Rs. 50,000 crore for the development of agriculture and rural infrastructure. As many as 3.5 crore farmers have been given Kisan Credit Cards, through which farm credit worth Rs. 60,000 crore has been disbursed. A similar scheme of Artisan Credit Cards has been launched for over 2.5 crore artisans and handloom weavers. The rate of interest for bank loans for farmers and artisans has been reduced to a maximum of 9 per cent.
India’s shining economic achievements
As against the annual addition of only 39 lakh employment opportunities till 1998, the NDA Government has created 84 lakh new employment and self-employment opportunities each year. These include altogether new kinds of employment opportunities as in the IT and telecom sector, in which India has emerged as a global power. For the Congress, “Garibi Hatao” was a mere slogan for vote-catching. However, it is during the NDA Government that there has been the deepest and fastest reduction in poverty, thanks to a faster rate of economic growth and well-directed poverty alleviation programmes.
In the early 1990s, India had to pledge her gold abroad because her forex reserves had dipped to below one billion dollars. Now, our forex reserves are at an all-time high of $ 105 billion. India has started to prepay her external loans. From an aid-seeking country, India has now become an aid-giving country. There was a time, not long ago, when India imported food grains to feed her people. Now, thanks to our hard-working kisans, India exports food grains worth Rs. 7,000 crore to 25 countries.
The NDA Government has taken major steps for the empowerment and development of SC, STs, OBCs and women. Five Office Memoranda, issued by the previous Congress-backed UF Governments, which had placed restrictions on SCs and STs getting full benefit of reservation in government jobs, have been withdrawn. For the first time since Independence, a separate Ministry and a National Commission for Tribals have been set up. The country as a whole has seen a significant reduction in communal and caste violence during the NDA rule. The Opposition’s motivated propaganda that the BJP in power would spell discrimination and danger for the minorities has been completely belied.
The Prime Minister’s vision for India’s future
Although a lot has been accomplished in the past five years, the BJP is acutely aware of the enormity of the challenges ahead. Five years is too short a time to undo the failures and faults of nearly five decades of Congress misrule. More time is needed to spread the effect of the “Feel Good Factor” in the economy to the poorest and weakest sections of our society. The people have also come to the conclusion that Shri Atalji’s Government has not got sufficient time to accomplish its mission. They are convinced that the BJP alone is capable of resolving the several intractable problems created and left behind by the Congress misrule.
The people are also convinced that the BJP is the only party that has a clear vision for India’s future, as encapsulated in the Prime Minister’s energising call to make India a Developed Nation by 2020. He has said, “India is marching towards a bright future. We have our share of problems. But these cannot hide the brightness on the horizon. It will be a future free of poverty, unemployment and all other vestiges of underdevelopment. The day is not far when every region, every community and every citizen in our country shall enjoy the fruits of India’s prosperity and progress. If we want, and if we act unitedly to get what we want, then this energizing goal can be achieved within the span of a generation. Is this a dream? Yes. It is an impossible dream? No, it is not.”
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