Gujral Govt Will Not Survive 1997: Advani

BJP President LK Advani yesterday predicted that the Gujral government cannot survive 1997 and that there would be a mid term poll by the end of this year or early next year.

The BJPs earlier prediction that the Deve Gowda government would not last long had come true, he pointed out.

Advani, who announced his intention to undertake a 55-day Swarna Jayanti Yatra from May 18, admitted that the proposed yatra would held the BJP to strengthen the party by widening its ideological appeal among the masses.

The yatra would witness a mass contact programme, public meeings and village meetings and try to initiate a nationwide debate on important issues. This would project the BJPs vision for national reconstruction, with specific focus on the unfulfilled task of transforming swaraj (self governance) to Suraj (good governance, Advani claimed.

There is general cynicism all around that nothing would change the country; every one is concerned about himself, he noted, adding that this is a sorry state but true. A determined brake has to be applied to change the situation. The image of politicians have been besmirched in the past years by scams and mega scams.

This has heppened because politics, which was a mission before 1947, has turned into crass commerce, Advani held and claimed that the central concern of his yatra will be the need to change the pervasive image of the ugly Indian politician.

The BJP president said other political parties had abandoned their dharma of keeping contact with the masses and mobilising people for their respective programmes. Barring the BJP, other political parties concentrated their attention on steering committees and coordination committees politics,the committees that meet in Delhi only, he added.

Advani claimed that the Congress partys stability card had in the recent years slipped into the hands of the BJP. It seems that the only way the Congress could be saved now was by reverting to the dynastic rule, he said, while hinting at Sonia Gandhis joining the Congress as an active member. Advani claimed that the BJPs appeal had widened among parties which were earlier opposed to it.

The BJP, which had only one ally, the Shiv Sena, in 1995, has four more allies today the Haryana Vikas Party, the Samata party, the Akali Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), he pointed out.

Most of the political parties in the United Front were not opposed to the BJP on ideological lines. He named the Congress, the Left parties, the Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party as the only ones which were still anti-BJP.

In response to a newsmans query on whether he expected trouble for his yatra in West Bengal and some other places, Advani criticised the Left parties for coining the new demenology of anti-BJPism after their demenology of capitalism has failed. The Leftists have become desperate, he held.

Even a Leftist like Gujral would not get the Lefts support unless he is also anti-BJP, he said. It was significant that even after Gujrals election as Prime Minister, the Left parties were naming another person for the post, Advani added.

I feel sorry for the pathetic state of the Marxists. It has been a saga of unending betrayals by them starting with the backstabbing of those who were in the 1942 quit India movement, he said.