BJP national council to discuss security
By Brajendra Nath Singh, IANSWednesday, February 17, 2010
INDORE - The national council of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is meeting here Thursday to discuss India’s security situation and to ratify Nitin Gadkari in the party president’s post.
The three-day national convention of India’s largest opposition party started in this Madhya Pradesh city Wednesday with a meeting of its national executive.
Party Spokesman Prakash Jawadekar told IANS Thursday morning: “The inaugural session of the national council will be addressed by party president Nitin Gadkari at 11 a.m. after his ratification for the top post.”
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley will present a resolution on national security, one issue where the BJP hopes to corner the ruling United Progressive Alliance — it says the government is too soft on Pakistan over Islamist terrorism.
Jawadekar said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi — one of the hardliners on the issue — is expected to intervene in the debate over the resolution.
He said the resolution would deal with Islamist terrorism, the Maoist menace, alleged infiltration by China in Arunachal Pradesh, the proposed India-Pakistan talks slated on Feb 25 and Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s concurrence to the amnesty scheme for militants willing to return from Pakistan administered Kashmir.
The resolution is expected to be passed Friday.
The national council will also discuss amendments to the BJP constitution, that have been proposed to make the organisational election process simpler and to increase the number of central office bearers.
Jawadekar said the changes would reduce the workload on party office bearers.
“Only 19 state units of the party have completed their organisational elections,” he pointed out. A simpler process is expected to ensure that more states follow suit.
