BJP to shelve hard economic choices

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken a conscious decision to put all controversial economic issues""whether they be privatisation, or disinvestment or increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) caps or labour sector reforms ""on hold till the general elections.

"No controversies. Absolutely no controversies. We have done well in the Assembly elections. I have no doubt we will get a good Budget. Everything is going our way. We should do nothing to rock the boat," said a top BJP leader credited with engineering the party's victory in some of the four states that went to the polls recently.

"The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has an annual retreat. While he was minister, Pramod Mahajan used to be a star speaker at CII bashes. When he ceased to be a minister, they dropped him. After a gap of nearly a year, he was invited to speak to captains of industry at the CII retreat in Goa last week. The tide is turning in our favour. We should do nothing to obstruct its course," the leader explained.

The government's strategy will be to showcase for the next nine months, all that it has managed to do despite being a coalition of 20 parties, instead of directing the spotlight on areas where it has tried to bring about change but has failed.

"There is no dearth of things we have done. In virtually every speech made during the Assembly election campaign, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has emphasised the importance of the Golden Quadrilateral and how it will change the lives of those who live in villages.

"The communication revolution is here to stay. Even if telecom reforms are postponed for the moment, the momentum of the reforms process is such that a temporary slowdown will not affect the lives of the people. We should do nothing on which unanimity""both within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the government and the Opposition"" is absent," said the leader.

Unanimity on economic reforms is missing from even within the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is another reason for the BJP to postpone a push for reforms.

In the Sangh Parivar, there are few takers of the interpretation that the BJP's victory in the Assembly elections of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh should be equated with approval of economic reforms.

"If reforms are all that that saleable, why did the BJP lose Himachal Pradesh or Delhi?" asked another senior BJP leader who felt the BJP's victory should not be seen as an endorsement for reform or liberalisation.

Senior BJP leaders say the BJP gained the most in these elections because of local issues.

There is also tough posturing by the RSS-backed Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM). "We do not see this victory as approval for reforms," said Mulridhar Rao, convenor of the SJM.

"If that were the case, the Congress should have won because it has a better track record than the BJP," he pointed out while making it clear that the SJM would oppose any move to widen the scope of foreign direct investment in crucial sectors like telecom.

Sources in the RSS also warn that it would be politically imprudent for the government to fiddle with the contentious issues like disinvestment and FDI with the Lok Sabha elections barely 10 months away.