BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar smile during a press conference in New Delhi yesterday.
IANS/New Delhi
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become the central pole of Indian politics and, in future, Indian politics will be guided along pro- or anti-BJP lines.
Speaking at a press conference here, Jaitley also said the BJP was hopeful of winning the Bihar assembly election later this year and termed the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal-United coalition as “impractical”.
“The BJP hopes to win the polls that are to happen in Bihar soon. An impractical coalition is set to try and stop us. I am sure we, along with our allies, will come to power in Bihar,” Jaitley said.
Stating that the BJP had become the central pole of Indian politics in the last two decades, he said: “From now onwards the country’s polity will be guided either on pro-BJP or on anti-BJP line.”
“There has been good co-ordination between the government and the organisation in the last one year. Our party and our cadre are proud of our performance,” the senior BJP leader said on the occasion of one-year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
“The last one year has been historic for BJP.”
Talking about the achievements of the Modi government, Jaitley said: “We have been able to bring inflation under control to a great extent in the last one year since international prices of crude oil have come down.”
However, he said due to the global economy and domestic disturbances, the “agrarian situation poses a challenge to our economy.”
He said now there was “clarity of direction” and “policy paralysis has been fought down. Corruption has been replaced by transparent governance and crony capitalism has been replaced by liberal policy.”
Jaitley also said the last one year has “restored the credibility, stature of PMO (prime minister’s office).”
“In this government the last word belongs to the prime minister and that is how it should be. When the UPA was in power, the government was run from outside. We have reversed this situation,” he said, referring to the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
He said despite ideological differences the BJP formed a coalition government with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir.
This experiment with the PDP would be in “the country’s interest in the long term,” Jaitley said, adding the verdict given by the people made this coalition possible.
“The government has decided that May 26 to May 31 will be observed as ‘Jan Kalyan Parv’ under which ministers, MPs and senior leaders will travel across the country to highlight the welfare measures and various policies and initiatives taken by it for the welfare of the poor, downtrodden and farmers,” federal minister Anant Kumar said.
The party also plans to organise 200 big and 5,000 small rallies. It will also organise 200 press conferences across the country, he added.
Another minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi denied the government was repackaging the UPA’s programmes.
