Politics

Waiting for waves

The Bharatiya Janata Party has slipped into election mode ahead of other parties. An emergency meeting of the party's National Executive was held in New Delhi on May 1 and 2 to discuss strategy. The meeting constituted a committee, headed by Union Home Minister and former party president L.K. Advani, to coordinate election management and campaign. BJP general secretary M. Venkaiah Naidu, a member of this committee, spoke to V. Venkatesan on the election issues. Excerpts from the interview, which was conducted on May 3 in New Delhi.

What was the outcome of the National Executive meeting?

We decided to fight the elections together with our allies and with a common manifesto or agenda. We will campaign practically jointly. We have decided to project (A.B.) Vajpayee as the leader of the coalition. We are confident that there will be two types of waves in the election - a wave of anger against our opponents and a strong wave of sympathy for the Vajpayee Government. Our cadres are being asked to tell the people about the achievements of the government on the one hand and the double standards and destructive attitude of the Opposition on the other. "Go to the people and explain to them," is our message.

Earlier you said that there was no sympathy wave.

It is not a question of sympathy alone, in a literal sense. It refers to the urge of the country that Vajpayee should come back, considering all that he has done... He has been giving good governance. This sort of sympathy or affection or love for Vajpayee will last, so we are not worried whether the polls are held in June or September. But we want an elected government at the earliest. If June is bad, September is worse in terms of the climate.

Will your allies agree to having a joint manifesto and a joint campaign?

The allies are with us. We are all working together.

But Mamata Banerjee, for example, has said that she favours a separate manifesto for West Bengal and that she may not be keen on a joint campaign with the BJP.

The Trinamul Congress will agree to a common manifesto. But since it is a State party, it can have a separate manifesto for the State, if it wants. At the national level it will abide by the National Agenda.

Since many of your allies are State parties, there may be contradictions.

I don't see them.

Are they free to have their own manifestos?

It is up to them to decide. But we would wish that all of us subscribe to the National Agenda and speak in one voice as far as national issues are concerned.

Is there a view within the BJP that Vajpayee should have staked his claim to form the government a second time, before the Lok Sabha was dissolved?

P.V. SIVAKUMAR

It was a question of numbers: we did not have 272-plus (MPs) to stake a claim. Others claimed that they had 272; they failed. Anyway, it is now a closed chapter. We do not want to bring the President into any further controversy. As far as we are concerned, the President was fair enough to give an indication that he would take the BJP also into confidence; he also said that one of the considerations will be an accretion in our numbers. That did not happen. We needed to have greater stability. We expected some parties to take a principled stand, to change their earlier stances, and support us.

Did you expect the Janata Dal to support you?

I cannot comment on any party as such. The Janata Dal was a confused party at that time. And it is, now also. We expected the TMC to take a stand. We expected, to some extent, the Janata Dal also to take a stand. But it did not. We don't blame it.

The BJP does not seem to be keen to make an issue of Sonia Gandhi's "foreign origin".

It was not we who raised the issue. The debate was already on, and it is the media that started this campaign. If questions are put to us, we have to express our views on this. Ours will be a positive campaign to bring back Vajpayee.

The Prime Minister referred to the demand for a constitutional amendment to debar those who are not born in India from occupying high positions in government. Is the BJP in favour of such a move?

No, we have not even applied our mind to this. The party has not taken a stand on this.

Vajpayee has spoken against a personality-oriented campaign.

We are talking about his achievements. Although we are a parliamentary democracy, we are coming closer to a presidential type of election. In that case, personalities will be discussed. But our focus will be more on his achievements. Our advantage is that we have one leader, one alliance and one agenda. There is no one to match Vajpayee's personality on the other side of the political spectrum.

By deciding not to issue its own manifesto, the BJP appears to have given up its core issues - the Ram temple at Ayodhya, the abrogation of Article 370, and the enactment of a uniform civil code.

Who said these are the core issues? They are also issues, they are also important issues. Now, we have different commitments to the nation. We have given a commitment to the nation that we will govern the country according to the National Agenda. So there is no question of the BJP giving up those issues. The BJP's stand remains the same. It is not going to be a BJP government. What we are projecting is a government of a coalition, of which Vajpayee is the leader. We are fair enough to go to the people with an agreed common agenda. As far as the BJP's identity is concerned, we are for cultural nationalism; we are a party with a difference, an honest party with leaders who are not after power and with a cadre that is disciplined. All these things remain.

Is the BJP not confident of securing an absolute majority on its own?

I am sure that going by the present trend the BJP will secure an absolute majority on its own. At the same time, the commitment which we are giving to the people is that we are going together with our allies, we want to have a coalition government even if we have a majority on our own, and all coalition partners will be part of the coalition government.