Even before being flagged off seven weeks ago from Bihar, L K Advani’s country-wide Jan Chetna Yatra, many said, was not all about a battle against black money and corruption as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart sought to project it.
On Sunday, as the the 38-day trip culminated in the capital, the main opposition party ended up proving the cynics right: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leader succeeded in getting two alliance partners – Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha’s AIADMK and Maharashtra’s Republican Party of India (RPI).
At the Ramlila ground here, Advani, 84, promised that the MPs of the NDA would, in Parliament’s winter session next week, give a written undertaking in both Houses that they did not have illegal money stashed in foreign banks. The members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha would also state they don’t own any illegal property abroad.
Advani’s declaration makes it clear that BJP would take up the issue of black money in a big way in Parliament. On his part, Advani lauded the support of AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa, making it clear that the Tamil Nadu chief minister would soon join hands with NDA. Further, RPI chief Ramdas Athawale showered praise on Advani for his leadership.
As for the UP elections next year, the party leadership, led by president Nitin Gadkari, still wants to take up the issue of the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. But, Advani’s yatra gave a miss to the two-decade-long issue. In fact, a prominent section of the BJP leaders wants only corruption to be the key political focus at the national level. For, they fear the temple issue could disrupt the exiting harmony in the NDA and even lead to a polarisation of the parties.
Gadkari, 54, had recently played the temple card. At a rally in Ayodhya, he had promised that the BJP, if voted to power in the state in 2012, would work for the construction of a grand temple at the disputed site (where the Babri Masjid was pulled down in 1992).
On Sunday, Advani raised doubts about the credibility of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, questioning why the Union government took no action when there were allegations of massive corruption in the 2008 spectrum allocation and the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
“Corruption is not only because of the absence of a Lok Pal,” he noted. “It is because of a lack of political will of the government. My yatra has completed, but the war against corruption will continue till the time people don’t feel it has been rooted out of this country,” Advani told a huge gathering.
If the NDA has been raising the issue of corruption in the 2G spectrum allocation, Adarsh Society and CWG, BJP senior leader Sushma Swaraj on Sunday added three more to the list: The “scam” in the KG-D6 oil block, the alleged scandal involving Air India and the cash-for-vote scam in which two former BJP MPs and Advani’s aide Sudheendra Kulkarni were given bail recently.
It is now certain the BJP would take up these issues during the Parliament session. It will also raise the controversy regarding the names of 700 people who have allegedly stashed illegal money abroad.
“If we ask about price rise, we are told (agriculture minister) Sharad Pawar is responsible; if we talk about 2G spectrum, (former telecom minister) Raja is responsible. And, when we raise questions about Air India, Praful Patel is blamed,” said Swaraj, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
