HUBLI, KARNATAKA, Mar 15 (UNI) Deputy prime minister LK Advani today asserted that India was scripting a success story under the NDA government in comparison to the stewardship of the Congress, whose core problem was that good governance had disappeared from its culture.
"We have shown that with good governance, the people of India can get to the top.
Earlier, there were achievements of Indians today India as a nation is scripting a success story," Advani told reporters here.
There is a visible mood of optimism described as the 'feel-good' factor due a great deal to the achievements of the Vajpayee-led NDA government in the past six years, he said.
Referring to the 'Bharat Uday Yatra,' Advani said during the five days of his travel through Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he witnessed an 'outpouring' of faith in India's ability to fight poverty and backwardness and emerge as a developed economy and a world power by 2020.
The yatra had been greeted with enthusiasm precisely because the NDA government and the BJP now had a 'proven track record,' he said.
Advani said the BJP was wedded to the Common Minimum Programme and would not pursue its own agenda if the party secured majority on its own in the five-phase general elections.
It will not violate the coalition dharma even then, he added.
The party would work towards a negotiated settlement of the vexed Ayodhya problem which alone could ensure its abiding solution as there was no remedy in a legislation passed in parliament or a court verdict, he said.
Advani stressed the need for a federal law to tackle issues such as the inter-state fake stamp paper racket involving Abdul Karim Telgi or the Veerappan menace and pointed out that his suggestion in this regard was not accepted by chief ministers of various states though the bureaucracy was in favour of it.
Asked about the delay caused by the CBI in probing the fake stamp paper scam, he said this was mainly because the state governments of Karnataka and Maharashtra had referred the cases to the CBI very late.
Moreover, the CBI would take the cases to a logical conclusion, instead of carrying out mere investigation, he added.
He said there was a veritable exodus to the BJP from the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the minorities.
They were all coming into the party without any conditions or strings attached.
"We have an open attitude to all," he added.
Unlike in the past when claims made by incumbent governments were viewed with cynicism and disbelief, now 'enormous hope' was being reposed in the Vajpayee government, the Dy PM said.
The 2004 elections, he said, would be a turning point in the country, as the soaring popularity of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would translate into an unequivocal mandate for the BJP and its allies in the Southern states.
The Congress is inherently "unsuited to the task of providing India a wholesome environment for channelling its energies and is unsuited for governance," he said.
Virtually non-existent in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Congress' claim of being a national party now `rests on the delusion that a large number of people in the Southern states will vote for it as a matter of habit,' contended Advani.
He said, judging by the response to his yatra in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he believed that the Congress could no longer treat the Southern states as a 'pocket borough' and win votes on its "ability to exploit poverty and backwardness." Observing that the role of the Southern states in India's resurgence had been considerable, he said there was healthy competition among the states to reap the benefits of development.
"Yet, there is a need to address the `serious problems' of governance," Advani added.
Stating that he was determined to ensure that the BJP wrested power in Karnataka from the Congress in the Assembly elections, Advani said the Congress lacked the application in solving the serious water shortage and drought facing the state.
"This is a problem the NDA government is determined to tackle on a war-footing in the next five years.
We will ensure that Mr Vajpayee's second dream project of inter-linking Indian rivers becomes a reality," he said.
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