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Bharatiya Janata Party president M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday made a scathing attack on the opposition, especially the Congress, charging it with increasingly irresponsible behaviour in Parliament and asked his party workers to be "ever vigilant against the destabilisation instincts" of the Congress and the Communists.
"We are progressive in our thinking. Now let us be aggressive in our action to foil the cynical politics of the Congress-Communist combine," Naidu said in his presidential address at the party's national council convened in New Delhi to ratify his appointment as the party chief.
The meeting, which is expected to chalk out an action plan for the forthcoming assembly elections in ten states, including Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, saw Naidu exhorting party workers to "counter the Congress effectively and defeat it decisively."
He said the Congress party might be in power in many states, but was incapable of addressing any of the major issues facing the country.
Naidu said the success of the BJP and the stability of the NDA government have demoralised the opposition. "The Congress which is the principal opposition party and the Communists, who have become the 'B' team of the Congress, cannot stomach the fact that the Vajpayee government is all set to complete its full term of five years with a strong record of performance," he said.
He said disruption of proceedings in Parliament for no "rhyme or reason" has become a "favourite pastime" of the opposition.
"Their boycott of Defence Minister George Fernandes in Parliament is not only against the spirit and norms of democracy, but also has no precedence in Parliamentary history," he said.
In an apparent bid to debunk the criticism that the BJP has given up the NDA agenda, he said: "We are only conscious of the fact that in the present scenario we are moving ahead in the spirit of NDA agenda. We will never force our views and ideas on our allies."
Stating that it should be the endeavour of the BJP and its alliance partners to further strengthen the NDA, Naidu made it clear that the success of the NDA experiment was not only the BJP's responsibility, "it is the collective duty of all its members."
This, he said was possible if all follow the dharma of coalition. "Personally, I feel there is need for greater interaction among the NDA constituents from time to time. It is important that differences are sorted out through dialogue and consultations."
Turning to secularism, Naidu said nobody needed to preach the BJP virtues of secularism. He however, made it clear that the BJP "does not believe in appeasing any particular section of society for the sake of cornering their votes or advancing our political ends."
PTI
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