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The ruling BJP on Friday termed the opposition alliances across states as “political circus” which is a “recipe for chaos”.
In a blog post, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that over the last several months, India was “exhausted” with the talk of a ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (Grand Alliance) across different states. According to the Finance Minister, the only reason for these alliances to come into being is that that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP are too strong to be challenged by any individual party.
Stressing that Indians judge politicians by their merit and capacity and no longer by any traditional loyalty, he said: “We were promised a ‘coalition of rivals’ because India had to be saved. We were promised a common minimum agenda. Each leader amongst the aspirant Prime Ministers wanted to become a ‘sutradhar’ (anchor) of the alliance. He/she would periodically organise shows in his/her State and invite the entire bandwagon.”
In the Opposition camp, Jaitley said, there is a tussle for leadership as multiple candidates have made their desire clear to take over the mantle of the leadership.
According to him, each one of them is interested to see the strength of the other party’s contender depleting and also have high hopes in a chaotic and highly hung Parliament.
“He/ she believes that only in a chaotic situation he/she has a chance,” said Jaitley.
The track record of such governments in terms of policy, longevity and growth has to be borne in mind, he said adding their track record of corruption is equally well-known.
Jaitley said it is only because of the size of the BJP and clarity on leadership in the last coalition that a successful government was run under Prime Minister Modi.
“Today you have no ‘gathbandhan’ let alone ‘mahagathbandhan’ It is a ‘non-bandhan’ You have no leader, no programme, no meeting of minds. Stability, which is paramount, is a major casualty. The only thing in common is negative agenda ‘remove one man’ It is a recipe for chaos,” he said.
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