Tags:
Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, June 2: Bharatiya Janata Party president Kushabhau Thakre today ruled out the possibility of an arms race in the subcontinent, saying Pakistan could not afford it.
Addressing a press conference here, he maintained that the Indian nuclear programme was not aggressive, and that the government only intended to solve long pending issues in a peaceful manner. Any responsible government in Pakistan should choose to sit unconditionally on a negotiation table with India, the BJP president said.
Thakre, on his first visit to Mumbai after the nuclear tests at Pokhran on May 11, officially confirmed that the BJP was against the damaging of property of multinationals in the country. “Our Swadeshi does not mean that we break bottles of Pepsi and Coke,” he said.
On the possible fallout of the sanctions imposed against India by the United States, the BJP president said the union government had considered all possibilities in the pre-budget exercise, and the Union Budget 1998-99 reflects India’s preparednessto face sanctions.
Budgetary allocations for all vital sectors like employment, education, health, social sector and infrastructure have been augmented with a view to maintain a healthy balance of payments situation while injecting growth into the Indian economy, Thakre stated.
When asked for his reaction to the perception in industrial circles that the BJP-led government had missed an opportunity to come out with an attractive and bold budget, Thakre said it was a good and people-friendly budget rooted in swadeshi and designed to provide a boost to the national economy. The budget was aimed at strengthening the social sector and targeted in favour of the economically deprived sectors of society, he stated.
The budget heralded a shift in the country’s development priorities, bringing the toiling masses on a higher agenda. It reflected the government’s focus on the rural economy and addressed the needs of farmers, artisans and entrepreneurs, he added. Above all, Thakre said, the budget demonstrated thatIndia had the capacity to defeat sanctions and withstand global pressures on the country’s concern for security. In a nutshell, the budget was another step towards fulfilling the promises of the BJP, he added.
He blamed the previous governments for undermining India’s security needs, saying he was happy about the finance minister’s decision to augment funds for defense, atomic energy and space research. When asked whether he was consulted before carrying out the nuclear tests, he quipped It was not necessary”.
Asked whether the party would field Pramod Mahajan, political advisor to prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, for the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, thus giving him a back-door entry into Parliament, the BJP president said that a decision would be taken in the election committee’s meeting, scheduled for June 4.
