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Bjp Debunks Cong Rollback Demand

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BSCAL

The BJP neatly turned the tables on the Congress yesterday by selectively quoting Manmohan Singh's speech in the Rajya Sabha, favouring economic pragmatism. The BJP spokesperson used it to try and debunk the Congress' demand for a roll back of prices, over which party chief Sonia Gandhi had led a procession earlier in the day.

Gandhi handed a memorandum on the issue to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the morning. The Prime Minister promptly went to address a meeting of BJP MPs, and held forth on how the Opposition was playing politics, ignoring economic realities. He then urged his flock to go to the people with facts about the economy - and how the Congress had dealt with it a decade ago.

 

Vajpayee told them that the Opposition's populist issues lacked sound economic rationale, party spokesperson M Venkaiah Naidu later told the media. Populism was no substitute for economic pragmatism, Vajpayee added. The Congress particularly was loud but hollow.

On the other hand, Naidu suggested that Singh's speech could become the basis for a national consensus since it was about time good economics made for good politics.

Ignoring the fact that Singh accompanied Gandhi to give the memorandum, Naidu sought to suggest a divide in the Congress on economic policy.

Naidu said the BJP was preparing a fact sheet on the Congress' record in government in the early 1990s to counter the party's "crocodile tears for the poor".

He distributed statistics, including the 40 per cent hike in fertiliser subsidy in Singh's 1991 budget, the four increases in rice price from 1984 to 1990, from Rs 208 per quintal to Rs 244 - and four times again from 1991 to 1996, from Rs 289 to Rs 537 per quintal. He omitted the increase from Rs 244 to Rs 289 in 1990-91.

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First Published: May 17 2000 | 12:00 AM IST

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