Thaindian News

Patna, June 12 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began a two-day meeting of its national executive here Saturday to deliberate on a range of issues and launched a scathing attack on the Congress-led ruling combine at the centre, terming it a “super flop show”.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari, in his speech, blamed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) of failing to deliver on its promises.

“The prime minister promised double digit growth rate, instead the government has achieved double digit inflation,” he said.

“The singularly most incongruent factor of the UPA regime is the fact that its administrative leadership lacks political will and its presiding political deity has no exposure to the intricacies of governance,” Gadkari said in a veiled attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

He said the UPA-II government, which completed its first year last month, started with sheer lack of political judgment on the issue of separate statehood for Telangana.

Gadkari said the UPA had not been able to evolve a coherent strategy to overcome the Maoist problem, bring the women’s reservation bill in the Lok Sabha and grasp the gravity of the situation in Manipur, where an indefinite economic blockade by several tribal groups has hit normal life.

He also charged the then Congress of trying to protect former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson, an accused in the Bhopal gas leak case of 1984.

In this context, he referred to the remarks of former CBI joint director B.R. Lall about having received a letter which said the extradition of Anderson should not be pursued.

“The latest revelation by an officer in the context of the Bhopal tragedy has reinforced our fear that the Congress is continuing this strategy to cow down opponents or to let free from our law their acquaintances - (Italian businessman Ottavio) Quattrochhi and Anderson,” Gadkari said.

“Bhopal tragedy is a saga of treachery, back stabbing and betrayal. No words are powerful enough to condemn all those who manhandled this issue,” he said.

Gadkari praised Bihar’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for “good governance”. He said it had recorded 11 percent growth during its term and had changed the state’s image.

“In the NDA rule, under the leadership of Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, Bihar has been converted to a ‘jujharu’ (combative) state from a ‘Bimaru’ (sick) state a few years ago.”

He urged the people to “once again repose their confidence in the NDA to make Bihar known internationally for its phenomenal success”.

Gadkari charged the government with using the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to work for its political ends and demanded a parliamentary probe into the “misuse” of what he termed the “Congress Bureau of Intimidation”.

“While the nation is facing innumerable threats to its internal security, government is forcing the CBI to work for its political designs. The CBI has become a tool of intimidation,” Gadkari said.

Gadkari said that the party’s will launch in July 2010 a three-year structured training programme for party cadres.

“We have an ambitious programme to train 10,000 party workers this year,” he said. “We have to plan our path to make the BJP accomplish its historic mission.”

The two-day meeting is being attended by top party leaders including L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar and the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.

The BJP has planned a rally at Patna Sunday to launch its campaign for the Bihar assembly polls. The BJP is the junior partner in the NDA coalition that is led by the Janata Dal-United (JD-U).

The party’s show of strength in Bihar’s capital came under a shadow when Nitish Kumar cancelled a dinner party for BJP leaders, apparently irked over full page adverisments featuring him with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Nitish Kumar also threatened legal action against an advertisment agency using his picture without his permission.