BJP to focus on corruption, price rise at executive

GUWAHATI - The two-day national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opens here Saturday and the party is all set to hit out at the UPA government on issues of corruption and price rise, although RSS leader Swami Aseemanand’s confession about his role in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast has dimmed the party mood considerably.

We are going to take three very important resolutions - political, economic, and one specifically focused on the northeast - at the end of the two-day national executive in Guwahati, BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad told IANS.

The political resolution would include corruptions and scandals ranging from the 2G spectrum to the Commonwealth Games, Adarsh housing scam, and the Rs.1,000-crore corruption scam in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district.

The two-day meet will be inaugurated Saturday at a city hotel overlooking the river Brahmaputra and would be attended by an estimated 350 national leaders, including chief ministers of all seven BJP-ruled states.

But the BJP leaders are in a spot of bother over the reported confessional statement of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Swami Aseemanand in the Samjhauta Express blast.

This is nothing but a canard spread by the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government trying to abuse the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and falsely implicating the RSS. The Congress strategy to divert the attention of the people of Indian from the core issues like corruption and price rise would never work, Prasad said.

Nonetheless, BJP leaders were concerned over the reports with the media more interested in trying to get reactions on the confessional statements rather than talking about the national executive.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s economic resolution would primarily revolve around the issue of spiralling prices, while security concerns and the Bangladesh infiltration problem would be a focal point of the resolution on the northeast.

Bangladeshi infiltration issue is not just an issue for the northeast and Assam alone, it is a national problem and hence top most priority would be accorded to the influx issue, BJP’s national vice president and Lok Sabha MP from Guwahati Bijoya Chakraborty said.

The high point of the national executive would be a massive public rally Sunday in Guwahati where we expect over 50,000 people to hear speeches of leaders like L.K. Advani, Narendra Modi and Nitin Gadkari among others, BJP national general secretary Vijay Goel said.

The public meeting is being titled ‘Rally against corruption’.

An interesting feature of the meet is an exhibition at the rally venue where the BJP would highlight corruption and scams in Congress-ruled states, including Assam, and at the same time try project the development works in the BJP-ruled states.

It would give the people an idea and help them compare the corruption ridden Congress culture and the good work done by the BJP in states ruled by our party, Goel said.

The BJP national executive meeting is being held in Guwahati for the first time with an eye on the upcoming assembly elections in Assam.

It is true we always try to hold our national executive in states where elections are due and surely the meeting here would improve our chances of reaching out to the people of Assam with polls round the corner, Assam BJP state president Ranjit Dutta said.

With seven BJP leaders with Z-plus security cover arriving in Guwahati, authorities were working overtime to provide security for the meeting.

Already 100 National Security Guard commandos were being flown in from New Delhi for providing security to the BJP leaders with Z-plus security, besides Assam police and paramilitary troopers are deployed for the meeting, a senior Assam police official said.