NAGPUR, AUGUST 27: Attacks from within the party on his Government's economic and Kashmir policies made Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee come down heavily on his critics.In his brief address to the BJP national council before cutting short his visit and leaving for Delhi, Vajpayee told the party cadre: ``Politics should be practised only to a limit. We have to draw a Lakshman rekha and should not go beyond that. You have to shoulder the responsibility as well.'' The Prime Minister made it clear that criticism of the Government from within would be tolerated to a certain extent.A number of BJP leaders including Sushma Swaraj, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Sahib Singh Varma and Chaman Lal Gupta, had severely criticised the Government's policies at the national executive last evening. Prime Minister's ire was directed not only against the critics but also against senior ministers in his Cabinet who did not counter the charges and kept mum, BJP sources said.Faced with similar debate whether the Government was accountable to the party at the Bangalore national executive last year, Vajpayee had asserted the Government's supremacy in no uncertain terms. ``In matters of governance, the decision of the Prime Minister has to be final,'' he had said.The new BJP chief, Bangaru Laxman, too cautioned the party cadre against crossing the rubicon. ``We should evolve an explicit and unambiguous code of conduct. We should draw a clear Lakshman rekha,'' he said in his presidential address.Laxman came out very strongly on the issue of discipline in the party saying it BJP could not be disciplined party, it had better not be a party at all. Citing BJP ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Laxman said like Parusuram who kept on killing Brahmins till a Ram was born, he too would dissolve the BJP if it was indisciplined and build a new party.The impact of Vajpayee's outburst against party leaders' criticism of his economic policy ``favouring foreign investment at the cost of domestic industry (Swadeshi)'' was visible in the BJP's economic resolution discussed today as it read like an NDA document.The party today came out with a new definition of swadeshi with the BJP's economic cell in-charge Jagdish Shettigar terming swadeshi as ``protection and promotion of national interests.''Speaking on the economic resolution today, Shettigar who is also member of Prime Minister's economic advisory council, told party members that the party could change the strategy but not the objective which was nothing but swadeshi.Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha too described swadeshi as self-reliance which was possible only when the country was strong enough to take its own decisions. Pokharan-II had demonstrated that India could take its own decisions, he said.He countered charges of the RSS and BJP hardliners that disinvestment and foreign investment amounted to ``selling the country.'' Of the Rs 500,000 crore investment made in the country only two per cent (9,300 crore) was foreign investment which was negligible. ``Ninety-eight per cent need not be afraid of only two per cent,'' he said.Foreign investment was not a mandatory requirement for growth and development of the country. The Government would, however, not deny (opportunity to) anyone wanting to invest in India but would prefer that the investment be made only in the most needy sectors, Sinha said.He even went to the extent of asserting that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) could not start the next round of trade-related negotiations without India's cooperation. India had imposed 50-60 per cent import duty on agriculture and consumer products and anti-dumping duty on 105 items, to protect its domestic industry, he added.
