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BJP'S SINKING SHIP

This is reproduced from The Asian Age, Delhi dated 22 June:

Anil Shastri

It is a Catch-22 situation for the BJP, the major player of the just routed NDA regime. Neither can they axe Narendra Modi nor shield him. The Hindutva issue went out of proportion and the carnage that followed is known to the whole world. The post-election blame game has already started, very much contrary to the statement on the eve of the Chintan Baithak in Mumbai "not to make anyone a scapegoat for the defeat." An obsessed BJP refuses to come to terms with the political defeat. It seems that the quake was so severe that even the Richter Scale failed to measure it. Their political ideology suffered a fatal attack and at the moment is on life support in the intensive care unit. Behind the closed doors of the ICU, one can overhear the convulsive statements of one of the political patients, Balbir K. Punj the BJP MP, pointing a gun at Chandrababu Naidu and J. Jayalalitha (Tailspin of a verdict, The Editorial Page, June 22). He is quick to forget that Naidu and Jayalalitha are very much part of the NDA. Naidu, whereas, has blamed the NDA for his defeat in Andhra Pradesh. The photographs of Atal Behari Vajpayee were missing at the Chintan Baithak. Look at the height of opportunism: they have suddenly dumped into the dustbin of BJP’s history the same leader who was their mascot in the just concluded general elections. They must realise that whatever votes they got, maybe wrongly so, was due to Shri Vajpayee and his secular mask. They must remember that the people of this country have been able to see through their nefarious designs and the Hindutva card will no longer hold good. Igniting religious passion for political benefits does not work forever, especially in a country like India where tolerance and peaceful co-existence are the strengths of its philosophy. It is also laughable to see Chandrababu Naidu do a turnaround and point a finger at the authoritarian attitude of the BJP. TDP’s rout was very much expected, as the rural population of Andhra Pradesh were writhing in pain. The spate of suicide stands as a stark testimony to this. In his article, Shri Punj has made a serious and derogatory statement that the "Left and Congress brand of politics will keep India impoverished, diffident and may even lead to its disintegration." The delirium of Shri Punj may be taken with a pinch of salt. May I remind him that it was the Congress which ushered in the Independence of India and not the BJP? And as far as disintegration is concerned, yes I agree that the Left and the Congress brand will ultimately lead to disintegration, not of India but of the fanatic BJP which is likely to find a stampede of dissidents deserting the sinking ship.

(This is a rejoinder to the article of BJP MP Balbir Punj published in The Asian Age, Delhi of 22 June)

 

Railway Budget: Plan Outlay of Rs. 11,265 Cr. Proposed NEW DELHI: The UPA Railway Minister, Shri Lalu Prasad, on 6 July proposed an Annual Plan outlay of Rs. 11,265 crores for the current fiscal year. Presenting the Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha, Shri Lalu Prasad said that if the outlay of Rs. 2,933 crores for safety-related works from the Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) was taken into account, the total outlay aggregated Rs. 14,198 crores, which would be Rs. 773 crores more than the outlay in the interim budget. Additionally, Rs. 300 crores have been allotted for the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla project, taking the total outlay to Rs. 14,498 crores. In addition to the budgetary support, the Minister intends to provide Rs. 2,870 crores through internal resource generation for Plan expenditure, which would be Rs. 240 crores higher than that budgeted for last year. As in the previous years, the extra-budgetary resources, mainly through market borrowings from the Indian Railways Finance Corporation, will provide the balance requirement of the Plan. This includes Rs. 3,400 crores in market borrowings and Rs. 50 crores in investment through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project in the Viramgam-Mehsana gauge conversion work. For the SRSF, the Central Government’s contribution will be supplemented by the Railways’ own contribution, expected to be Rs. 858 crores, taking the total outlay for the Fund to Rs. 2,933 crores. The budget has provided for a Plan expenditure of Rs. 2,696 crores for five major projects.