Showdown between BJP, allies over rollback in price hike

“We will go to any extent to make the Government completely withdraw the anti-poor hike in urea and PDS prices,” Yadav said. The two leaders have convened a meeting of leaders today of the eleven allied parties which submitted separate memoranda to Vajpayee and the Finance Minister in this regard. The Lok Sabha is also scheduled to debate the general budget today.

The Prime Minister told BJP MPs that a dialogue was on with various parties, including the allies, on the poor economic health of the country. “No action should be seen from political angle alone,” BJP spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu said, quoting Vajpayee.

Justifying the reduction in subsidies on urea and PDS commodities, he said the decision was taken to maintain the fiscal health in view of the economic situation inherited from previous regimes.

Vajpayee is likely to take advantage of the schism within several allied parties like JD (U) where Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav does not agree with his party colleague Devendra Yadav’s stand on the rollback.

“Sharad Yadav is part of the Government and has to defend it, but you ask any JD (U) MP, he will echo my sentiments,” Devendra Yadav told The Indian Express on Tuesday.

TDP’s opposition to the price rise is because of the heavy subsidy bill its government foots in Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra government used to have rice priced at Rs two per kg when PDS rice was selling at Rs three per kg. Now the state government was providing rice at Rs three per kg when PDS rice was being sold to people below poverty line at over Rs five per kg. Obviously, its subsidy bill is about to be doubled.

At the BJP parliamentary party meeting earlier, though some MPs reportedly asked Vajpayee to clear the air about new RSS chief K S Sudarshan’s statements on the Constitution and the Government’s economic policies, the Prime Minister did not refer to the matter at all.

Vajpayee sought to deflect criticism that the Budget did not really reflect his intention of presenting a hard budget by saying, “We are running a coalition government which has its own limitations.”

According to Naidu, Vajpayee had stated that the Government had inherited a huge fiscal deficit and no political motives could be attached to steps taken by the Government.

With Parliament having a three-week recess from this weekend, Vajpayee said the party members should explain to the electorate the rationale behind the Government decision.

The members said there was a need to tackle effectively the disinformation campaign being carried out by political rivals on certain "non-issues".