Bjp Meet Likely To Skip Debate On Economy

At a time when the Vajpayee governments focus is on improving the countrys economic prospects, the BJP is likely to avoid a full-scale discussion on the economy at its two-day national executive meeting from Saturday.

The party has informally decided not to move a separate economic resolution at this executive meeting, a BJP office-bearer said yesterday. The party does not want to embarrass the government by spelling out the BJPs hardline Swadeshi thinking through a resolution, he said.

Also, there are few capable leaders left in the party organisation to articulate the partys economic thinking. Those who are left do not know what attitude the party should take towards the government, he added.

For the time being, the party has decided to leave the matter to Vajpayee and his ministerial colleagues, LK Advani and Yashwant Sinha, to refer to in their speeches. Some party leaders are looking forward to Vajpayees address to the executive to clarify what he meant by his recent statement that the government would have to take some hard decisions to tackle economic problems.

No one in the party is willing to interpret the statement.

Party vice-president Jana Krishnamurthy said there was no need for the executive to adopt an economic resolution. However, he cautiously added that a resolution could be moved if the national executive members demanded it.

BJP general secretary Kushabhau Thakre said there wasnt enough time for the executive to discuss an economic resolution in addition to a resolution on the countrys political situation.

The party is yet to adopt a role for itself vis-a-vis the government. Krishnamurthy said the role has to be complementary, as the BJP is a major partner in the coalition. When the BJP was in the Opposition, its views were confrontationist, he conceded.

Earlier, the main focus of the partys economic resolutions were criticism of the governments economic policies, another BJP leader said. At the most, an economic resolution this time could criticise the previous governments policies. But this too would have tread on dangerous ground since, in many cases, the government might have to continue the old policies, he said.

The government has not taken any major policy decision that the party could either appreciate or criticise in its economic resolution. The first major policy statement will be the Union budget, Krishnamurthy said.

The BJPs economic agenda has been by and large absorbed in the governments national agenda and the government has not started executing it, he said. There was no use passing a resolution on the same lines, he added.