Opposition Doubts Govts Promises

Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha yesterday expressed doubts over the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalitions promises to the electorate saying there were a lot of contradictions between their election manifestoes and the post-poll national agenda.

Participating in the resumed discussion on motion of thanks to Presidents address on the third day, Congress leader S B Chavan asked government to clarify its stand on the contradictions following a reported statement by BJP president and home minister L K Advani that people would reject the party if election promises were not fulfilled.

Janata Dal leader S R Bommai, who also made a similar demand, said track record of BJP shows that they speak something and do something else and cited the demolition of Babri masjid as one such instance which, he said, was not on the party agenda in 1989.

However, both the leaders differed in their views on the future of coalition politics in the country with Chavan dismissing it as a temporary aberration and Bommai describing it as the real federal democratic process.

Chavan, who initiated the discussion yesterday, justified his argument on the coalition experiment saying the peoples verdict in the last two elections made it abundantly clear that they were not in favour of multi-party coalitions and had forced a political polarisation.

I request political parties to understand that coalition politics is a temporary aberration. It cannot be a permanent feature as the people feel that multi-party system does not work, Chavan said.

Bommai, who advocated coalition politics said concentration of power with a brute majority could lead to dictatorship and suggested pre-poll coalition and participation of all partners in government to provide stability.

He said a common manifesto should be ready before the polls and if the government is to be stable, all parties in the coalition must participate in the governance and there should be no outside support.

In this context, he admitted that the United Front had committed a mistake by allowing outside support to it (by the Congress and the CPI-M).

On the educational front, while Chavan said it would be a difficult task for government to mobilise Rs 80,000 crore in the next five years for elementary education, Bommai suggested levy of an education cess for this purpose.

On BJPs proposal to set up a commission for reviewing the Constitution, Chavan wanted the government to come out with specific issues on which the coalition would seek expert opinion.

However, Bommai opposed the move saying there was no need for such a commission as the purpose could be served through amendments to the Constitution.

On economic front, Bommai wanted the government to come out with a pragmatic economic programme giving agriculture the top-most priority.

He regretted that 50 years after independence, India had no national policy on agriculture despite the fact that over 70 per cent of the people in the country were dependent on it.

Chavan wondered how the coalition proposed to achieve a seven to eight per cent GDP growth without having a sound infrastructure.

Emphasising on the need for a strong growth in power sector, the Congress leader said top priority should be accorded to hydel, solar, wind, thermal, atomic and gas-based power projects in that order.

He, however, wondered why Indian scientists held divergent views on the efficacy of atomic power and said that a deliberate attempt was being made to spread a canard that atomic power was not desirable.