|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, 13 January 2004 |
 |
|
 |
World | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
BJP pledges to transform India into global economic power HYDERABAD, India, Monday (AFP) India's ruling Bhartiya Janata Party eyeing early parliamentary elections, said they aimed to transform the country into a global manufacturing hub and build Indian multinational companies. An economic resolution passed during a meeting of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP or Indian people's party) leaders, attended by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, said the party was committed to making India an economic centre. "A sense of cynicism about the economy has now transformed into confidence and a sense of pride," Arun Jaitely, minister for law and commerce and a senior BJP leader, told reporters. The BJP is considering early elections ahead of the September deadline on the back of a booming economy, which grew 8.4 percent in September last year while foreign exchange reserves have crossed the 100 billion dollar mark. The economic resolution said India's manufacturing accounted for only 25 percent of the gross domestic product. "This has to expand. Major airports need to be expanded and upgraded, both quantum and cost of power at competitive rates must be ensured to make sure the manufacturing sector is not handicapped," Jaitely said. "China has become a major manufacturing hub and India has potential in automobile component manufacturing, information technology and pharmaceutical. Absence of a world class infrastructure has been one of the main hurdles." The resolution said the BJP would undertake reforms in the power and coal sectors and improve labour laws to ensure higher productivity and greater employment. It said India had emerged as a global hub for outsourcing due to its cheap and skilled manpower and the Hindu nationalists would come out with policies to upgrade manpower skills through private and government partnerships. The resolution pledged to create quality Indian cities by removing restrictive decades-old municipal laws. It also said foreign exchange reserves would be used for promoting and building Indian multinational firms. Ahead of an expected announcement of early polls, Vajpayee rallied thousands of supporters in the southern city of Hyderabad, telling them his government's economic performance had proved opposition leader Sonia Gandhi wrong. "Sonia Gandhi had said that the (government) was dreaming and that our dreams will never be realised," Vajpayee told a crowd of about 100,000 waving the green and saffron flags of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "We have showed her that if we dream, we convert the dreams into reality," he said. Vajpayee also expressed hope that a breakthrough reached with Pakistan last week will open a "new chapter" in the troubled history of the South Asian nuclear rivals. "We hope the agreement reached in Islamabad would be fully implemented and a new chapter is opened," he said, referring to an agreement to discuss the disputed Kashmir region. Vajpayee, 79, was taking a break from a two-day closed-door BJP session, which party president Venkaiah Naidu said will focus on "advancing elections." "The party will deliberate and make known its preference but it is the prerogative of the prime minister to take a final decision," Naidu said. The tone for the meeting was set Saturday with party general secretary Pramod Mahajan suggesting elections will be held in March, seven months before the deadline. Another BJP spokesman, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said the polls should be held by mid-April before the harvest season sets in. Naidu said the BJP had also "secured the consent" of allies in the coalition of some 20 parties on the timing of parliamentary polls. The BJP's biggest ally in southern India, the Telegu Desam Party headquartered in Hyderabad, Sunday voiced support for early national polls. Main opposition leader Sonia Gandhi is under intense pressure to find a new direction for her Congress party after losing three states to the BJP in December regional polls. The BJP has seized on the woes of the opposition, with Naidu saying: "The Congress today is a party without unity, clarity or acceptance of the people. We have to take this message down to the people." The BJP has signalled its intention to rake up Gandhi's Italian birth as an election issue. Party general secretary Mahajan on Saturday called Gandhi "a foreigner", but Congress spokesman S. Jaipal Reddy said the BJP leader's remarks were "not in good taste." On Saturday the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the third largest party in parliament, said the opposition could rally behind former finance minister Manmohan Singh as he has a reputation as an honest and efficient administrator. The current finance minister, Jaswant Singh, said he was ready to offer a special budget if parliament is dissolved. "If the prime minister says we want a full budget we are ready for that. If he wants an interim one we are ready for that as well," Singh said. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
