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L K Advani, Venkiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley, launched a blistering attack on government after PM Manmoha Singh's speech in Parliament on Friday.
Jaitley asked Defence Minister A K Antony to explain how he got Rs 1,000 crores cleared up defence purchases bypassing the Cabinet Committee on Security, while stressing on indiginisation of defence production. Jaitley said," I cannot understand why the UPA government tries to attribute all schemes and programmes to members of just one family the Nehru-Gandhi family." He wanted to know why the The UPA Government had named the Urban Renewal Mission after Jawaharlal Nehru. Now it has one more scheme: the Jawahar Lal Nehru National Solar Mission. After Indira Awas Yojana in rural areas, we now have a new scheme for urban housing and slums: the Rajiv Awas Yojana. The UPA Government had already launched the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana. Now a new scheme for rural LPG distribution has been named after the former Prime Minister -- 'Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitarak Yojana'.
"I call it a certain nomenclatural disease Nomenclaturitis -- which used to be found in communist countries like the Soviet Union where the only statue one saw in city after city was that of Lenin, or in other authoritarian countries like Iraq under Saddam Hussein, where the dictator's statues and photos loomed large everywhere. More than 450 schemes named after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi are operational,"Jaitley said.
"Does the Congress think that India has a one-party system? Why are the contributions of other former prime ministers, and great chief ministers and leaders of other political parties, never acknowledged and recognised?" Jaitley asked.
Venkaiah Naidu former president of BJP said," It (President's address) contains the same promises and proposals as are being repeated over the last five years. The address has not inspired anybody including the supporters of the UPA. The UPA has no answers to any of the challenges faced by the nation. It has really run out of ideas. It blames nature, global happenings, state governments and others for all their failures. This is an assault on the common man. It is the end result of this government's sheer incompetence. The government has conveniently forgotten their collective responsibility. Price rise is a silent killer. The UPA had inherited a robust economy from the NDA in 2004. Its own Economic Survey of July 2004 said, "The economy appears to be in a resilient mode in terms of growth, inflation, and balance of payments, a combination that offers large scope of consolidation of the growth momentum with continued macroeconomic stability."
Naidu wanted the government investigate the price rise through a Joint Parliamentary committee. "The BJP believes that the most important reason for this price rise, apart from incompetence and lack of leadership in the government, is the rampant corruption at all levels in government. The BJP wants a JPC to inquire into all the scandals. Whenever the Congress comes to power prices of everything hits the roof. What is the umbilical link between the Congress Party and price rise?" he charged.
Jaitley also said that the recent elections have shown that a large part of monies spent by the candidate includes payment for 'paid news'. Paid news is synonym for corruption in the media. Newspapers and channels which resort to paid news work on the premise that candidates must pay for coverage during elections."
"News will be slanted and the adversary's news will be blacked out, if the media organizations are paid adequately. Non-payment leads to a blackout of the candidate's campaign. It has now become common for commercial representatives of media organizations to approach candidates and political parties for 'news packages'. Besides news organizations, some electronic channels in the recent elections resorted to an alternative method of 'paid news' in a legitimized form. National news channels decided to increase their advertisement rates several fold during the general elections. There was a cartel that was formed. The cartel had the sanction of the collective body of the broadcasters. The difference between the rates of commercial advertising and election advertising was substantial. It was justified as an 'election premium.'Representatives of channels informed political parties that the extra charge would compensate the political parties through live coverage of rallies and press briefings besides advertisement. If the present trend counties then day is not going to be far when corrupt will sit in judgement and impose heavy panelties on those who abide by the law of the land," Jaitley said.