Trouble for BJP as two senior leaders back Manmohan Singh
By Syed Ubaidur Rahman (NVONews.Com)
New Delhi: Trouble is growing up fast for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) even as it continues to oppose the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on FDI, hike in diesel price and cap on LPG.
Two of the senior leaders, considered clean and upright, have endorsed several of the measures taken by the Prime Minister.
Editor-turned-politician Arun Shourie justified the UPA government’s move to allow FDI and hike diesel price saying it was the need of the hour.
Shourie, who was Disinvestment Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet, said in Bhopal on Saturday evening that a lot of hue and cry is being raised unnecessarily on the issue of FDI in retail as this would neither lead to profit nor losses.
It needs to be recalled that a couple of years back too Shourie took a different line on 2 G Spectrum scam and caused a lot of embarrassment to the party.
But on Saturday he did not stop there. He went on to say that “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has for the first time shown his strength.” This statement from him has put the BJP on defensive as the party has been baying for the blood of the Prime Minister.
But Shourie is not alone who departed from BJP’s official line over the series of alleged scandals swirling around the UPA government.
Former Union Minister and Uttarakhand chief minister Major General (Retired) B C Khanduri said in Dehra Dun on Sunday that resignation by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is ‘no solution’ to the political stalemate. He called for political reforms to root out corruption instead of going for ‘short-term solutions’.
“The Prime Minister’s resignation is no solution. Another will come and the same thing will happen again. We go for short-term solutions, we don’t try to eliminate the root cause of the problems that ail the system,” the former Uttarakhand chief minister told PTI in an interview. His statement is a significant departure from BJP which still insists on the prime minister’s resignation.
Khanduri, who last year became the chief minister for a brief period before the Assembly election last year, was credited for bringing a strong Lokayukta Bill in Uttarakhand, also asked the central government to give immediate clearance to the Bill which is pending before President Pranab Mukherjee for final assent.
Noting that the Prime Minister is a good economist, he said he is under intense pressure and was unable to ‘deliver’.
“The pressures of coalition politics hurdle the path to reforms. We must actually stem the rot at its root cause,” the former Union road and highways minister said.
He said time has come when the country must adopt a system where there should be some stability like fixed tenures of the government.
“Unstable governments fail to implement their programmes. There should be fixed tenures for governments,” he said.
The statements by the two senior BJP leaders have come as a shock to the party when it is fast losing friends.
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