Cong attempt to "defame" Modi, JNU row to figure at BJP meet

The "disinformation" campaign by Congress to "defame" the Modi government, the Ishrat Jahan and JNU rows, besides the "pro-poor and rural-centric" budget will be the key issues on the agenda at BJP's two-day National Executive meet beginning here on March 19.
"The opposition, especially Congress, has been exposed in the last 20 months over a host of issues, be it returning of awards by a section of intelligentsia or JNU row where it chose to side with anti-national forces. These will come up for discussion," a party leader said.
Elections to five state assemblies in April-May will be part of the deliberations during which Uttar Pradesh, which will go to the polls early next year and where BJP's stakes are high, may also figure.

The need to inform the masses about the "pro-poor and pro-village" aspects of the budget will be stressed upon at the meeting, party sources said, adding that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be the main speaker on the issue.
The party's office-bearers will meet on Saturday and the much-larger Executive will go into a huddle in the afternoon.
Party chief Amit Shah will set the tone for the exercise with his inaugural address to the Executive. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address the valedictory session on Sunday, they said.

The event will provide the party yet another opportunity to project its hardline nationalist credentials in the wake of the JNU row.

All top party leaders, including Shah, had hit out at Congress, particularly its vice president Rahul Gandhi, over the issue at a Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha convention recently.
"We believe that the issue has highlighted Congress' increasing ideological hollowness and that it can take up any cause in its desperation to target the government," sources said.
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The BJP said on Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress forgets a comprehensive all party meeting on August 12, which its own party leaders attended and where the Prime Minister spoke at length on the issue.
"Congress remembers Jammu and Kashmir only in the opposition. The most simmering situation in Jammu and Kashmir took place in 2010 when the Congress was a partner of the ruling coalition. The round of protests in 2008 took place under a Congress Chief Minister. Never has the Congress spoken for the rights of Kashmiri Pandits," it said.

The BJP said Congress was only paying lip service towards the "marginalised and the minorities" and blamed that most of farmer suicide have taken place in Congress Governments.
"It was a BJP government that formed a separate ministry of tribal affairs and carved two states with significant tribal populations," it said.
BJP said Prime Minister's statements on being the third largest economy in the world was based on GDP growth, but Congress leaders cite PPP data to contest this fact.
"Their spinning skills can be perhaps better utilized in the Indian cricket team. Infact, India is ranked third in the list of top prospective host economies for 2016-18 in the World Investment Report 2016 released by the UNCTAD recently (June 2016)," BJP said.

The party blamed Congress for poor research on its claims of flawed Aadhaar numbers.
"104.4 crore persons have been given Aadhaar as of today, out of the total national population. This comes to 82 p.C of the total population. And, if we simply take the adult population that is above 18 years this amounts to 98 p.C of the population," it said.
It said the inflation rate under the NDA government has not crossed 6 per cent when the rates during the Congress crossed double digits.
Chiding Congress for attack on Prime Minister's Independence Day speech, BJP said, "It was nothing but opposition for opposition's sake, indicative of the great panic that has set in the minds of the Congress party over the pro-people and development-oriented NDA Government's good work.