Under attack over the land Acquisition Bill, the BJP on Friday said it will launch a mass contact programme at all levels to dispel “myths and propaganda” spread by the Opposition and engage farmers in dialogue even as it insisted that it remained open to “another set of changes” suggested by rival parties and farmers. The party indicated that land (farmers’) economy was intricately linked with protection of “milking cattle” and appreciated recent ban on cow slaughter in two BJP-run States.
The two-day BJP National Executive meet started here with party’s Karnataka leaders Prahlad Joshi, BS Yeddyurappa, Ananth Kumar welcoming BJP chief Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party’s patriarch lK Advani and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at the dais in Kalinga hall in Hotel Ashoka. The BJP Chief Ministers — Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra) and Ml Khattar (Haryana), Raghubhar Das (Jharkahnad), lK Parsekar (Goa) and Deputy Chief Minister of J&K Nirmal Singh — were also felicitated.
In the inaugural address to the National Executive, Shah referred to the Delhi poll debacle saying party had a setback after a series of “stupendous electoral victories” last year and asked workers not to lose heart on this count. “It happens sometimes,” Shah was quoted by party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar as saying. The cut and thrust of Shah’s message seemed to be “not to be arrogant after victory and desperate after defeat”. The Delhi BJP unit is taking corrective steps, the party chief assured. The delegates are engaged in finalising plans to strengthen party and find its firm foot-prints in the States like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal and seven States of North-East.
Describing the BJP as “the only party with internal democracy,” Shah maintained that his party would stay in power at the Centre for next 10 to 20 years. Claiming the new dispensation has ended the “reign of scams” and policy paralysis of the predecessor Government, Shah said the BJP Government has transformed framework of governance at the Centre by bringing” total transparency” in its dealings. Attacking the previous UPA Government, Shah said the Congress-led Government was known for an array of scandals — 2G, coal, CWG, Adarsh, Submarine etc — which have globally damaged the image of the country. In contrast, the Modi Govern-ment, he said, has brought India in the front-ranking nations in the world comity and inspired a new hope in the youth of the country. He said 2014 would be written in “golden letter” in the history of the BJP when Narendra Modi took reins of Government at the Centre with the party attaining complete majority on its own. He said in 2014, the BJP, for the first time, installed its Chief Ministers in Maharashtra and Haryana, obtained majority in Jharkahnd and formed Government in coalition (with PDP) in Jammu & Kashmir.
The BJP’s victory in J&K, he said, was “the most important” of all the poll successes as it ensured national integration. He said notwithstanding the disinformation campaign, the BJP’s victory has heralded a new chapter of “an-all-round and uniform development” of the States. “BJP’s victory is a humble homage to people of J&K and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee,” he said. The BJP chief maintained that “internal democracy” in the BJP allows “a common worker” to become PM and party president. “Our party is not hereditary,” he said in apparently reference to Opposition parties, including the Congress.
Speaking about the forthcoming Bihar polls, Amit Shah said ever since Janata Dal(U) broke alliance with the BJP, the State is experiencing ‘Jungle-Raj-2’ and people are “angry” with the ruling party. Stating that JD(U) has betrayed the mandate of the people, Shah claimed that the BJP would get majority in the State in the polls later this year. The BJP chief said the Opposition was “dejected and directionless and therefore finding faults with us”. “Jo hain nahin un kamiyon ko maat dunde… dundo to apne neta ko,” the party president said in an apparent reference to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s sabbatical absence.
In reference to the issue of land Acquisition Bill, which is under rigorous discussion in the meet, Shah said as against the erstwhile UPA Government, the BJP “is a friend of farmers” as had restored Minimum Support Price for them in the WTO. He quoted the Prime Minister saying that BJP Government was “fully with farmers”. “There are many misgivings about the land Bill and we must take correct message to farmers,” he said.
When asked whether the party would take further steps to allay apprehensions on account of “consent clause and social impact assessment”, Javadekar refused to answer the query. Significantly, Shah congratulated the Maharashtra and Haryana Governments on anti-cow slaughter laws saying they have implications on a range of economic and environmental issues relating to climate change, requirement of milking cattle, land and animal. Javadekar, however, did not reply when asked whether a similar ban on cow slaughter would be extended to other States. “Animals and land are deeply connected,” he maintained.
Asked whether the issue of carrying out more amendments in the land Bill is being deliberated, the BJP leader said Modi has already announced in “manki baat programme” that “farmers interests will be protected.” Earlier during the day, BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said the party would brainstorm over the land acquisition issue and will also come out with a nationwide outreach to publicise the good works of the Government when it completes one year in power next month. “Industrialisation is necessary and we do not see any conflict between the industry and agriculture. We are making farmers a stakeholder and their interests would not be compromised,” Rao said. While seeking party workers to be politically agile, the party chief asked works to actively engage in non-political social reform movements.
Shah asked the BJP -- the biggest party in the world with 9.25 crore workers -- to lead social movements to abolish manual scavenging affecting 23 lakh socially backward population in the country. He said there was a need to create alternative employment opportunities for manual scavengers and sought party workers to reach out to them by their “door-to-door” mass campaign programme throughout the country. Besides this, BJP workers would be involved in three other social programmes like Beti Bachao Beti Padavo, Swatch Bharat and Namaami Gange campaigns, said the party president.