Joshi dares Congress to roll back BJP Govt policies

He also said the decision of Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang to vote was a direct assault on the federal nature of the Constitution. “He could have been voting when Parliament was enacting a Bill encroaching on the rights of the state. It is a clear disturbance of a basic feature of our polity. Is the Congress saying it doesn’t believe in federalism? Is it saying it doesn’t believe in the sanctity of the Constitution?”

He said the BJP had learnt much from its 13 months in power. “We have learnt how to work in a coalition. We have learnt the strengths and weaknesses of the resources at our command, of our administrative system. We have learnt it is important to both monitor the implementation of programmes as well as to communicate them to the people.”

Holding elections every now and then was not going to benefit anyone, he added. “From now on, Parliament should be dissolved only if the party which is proposing a vote of no confidence can put up an alternative leader and programme. It has been 72 hours since the Congress said on the floor of the House that it would declare its leader within a minute of the fall of our government. Where is their leader now?”

He pointed to many achievements of the government, including dealing — with magnanimity and equanimity — with all coalition partners, “except one where we had problems”. “We withstood sanctions after the nuclear tests at Pokhran. We held the price of the rupee constant. We were going to have 1.8 lakh schools in three years. Does the Opposition disagree with all that we did?”

He said a situation of political and economic instability as in the former Yugoslavia, early post-war France or Soviet Russia should not be allowed to be created. “Important legislation is pending in the House. Will the Congress oppose the Lok Pal Bill, now that it includes the prime minister in its ambit? Will they support the Women’s Reservation Bill? These are issues that are germane to every Indian’s life. The Vajpayee government was picking up now and taking decisions, even supposedly unpopular ones like rolling back subsidies, and opening up the Exim policy. It had performed on all fronts: security, development, economy, education, science and technology and social welfare.”

All it didn’t have at the end, he said in a lighter vein, was the numbers.