NEW DELHI, APRIL 6: It was meant to be an occasion to commemorate BJP's 20th anniversary, look at its struggles and laud its achievements. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee however, used the occasion to hit back at his adversaries, among his allies as well as in the opposition.While calling upon the Congress to shed its policy of blind opposition to the Government and evolve a broad consensus on national issues, Vajpayee took the allies to task for demanding a rollback of fertiliser and petroleum price hike.Vajpayee had however, reserved his most acerbic remarks for critics of his economic policies in the Sangh Parivar. ``People accuse me of selling the country but does anybody have guts to buy India? Is anybody bidding to buy India? We will forego power than compromise on national interest,'' he said.The Prime Minister's "attack" comes in the wake ofthe RSS Pratinidhi Sabha held last month which was highly critical of Vajpayee's economic policies especially on disinvestment and lowering custom duties on a wide range of consumer and electronic items.Referring to the propaganda that foreign dignitaries especially the US President Bill Clinton, who recently visited India, were eyeing only vast Indian market, Prime Minister declared,``We will not have relations with any country if that meant compromising on interest of our people''.He also came down heavily on the Congress's opposition to Constitution review and the UP Religious Places (Prevention of Illegal Construction) Bill. ``Can any level-headed person criticise Constitution review being conducted by this Government? People know that the review panel won't become a tool to fulfill any hidden agenda. Politics of vote should not be taken to such extremes,'' he declared.Referring once again to the hype created on the eve of Clinton's visit that he would force India to sign the CTBT Vajapyee said, ``He has left, but the issue whether CTBT should be signed, was still being debated.''The opposition was saying such things because they did not have anything to oppose the NDA Government and whatever they did simply booimeranged on them. ``They should rather strive to evolve a broad consensus on major issues. ``We too have been in opposition but we supported good Government decisions while opposing those which deserved to be opposed. They are breaking the convention'', he said.Criticising the NDA partners for demanding a rollback only to "expand their support base", Prime Minister said they should also keep country's poor economic condition in view while opposing budgetary provisions.Vajpayee seemed in a mood to concede his own mistakes as well. ``We should not have erred in Karnataka. In Bihar too if only the allies had not fought among themselves, Laloo Yadav would never had staged a comeback'', he said.Vajpayee did not spare even his own party asking BJP leaders to explain the"rationale" behind Government's decisions to the people.In contraast, Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani chose to be nostalgic. Starting right from the birth of Bhartiya Jan Sangh (BJP's pre-emergency avtar) in 1951 through the how and why the BJP came into being to the party's acsent to power, Advani justified the occasion.The Home Minister credited BJS founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee with training them in cultural nationalism and his successor, Deen Dayal Upadhyay with providing an insight into integral humanism.He referred to RSS Chief Guru Golwalkar's refusal to Mukherkee's request for Sangh's support in forming BJS since ``RSS does not participate in political activities'' as well as to Jai Prakash Narain's oft repeated comment at a BJS rally in 1975: ``If Jan Sangh is a communal party JP too is fascist''.
