Prime Minister 'an object of pity, sympathy': BJP

New Delhi, May 30 : In its sharpest-ever attack on Dr Manmohan Singh, the BJP today called the Prime Minister 'an object of pity and sympathy' who can be easily pushed around and alleged that the contradictory and conflicting ideological directions of the UPA and the Left parties had paralysed decision-making in the government.

But party stalwart and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, virtually admitting the fact that the main Opposition party is passing through a crisis, asked partymen to stop fighting each other and prepare themselves for the battles against their opponents.

Leader of the Opposition L K Advani, meanwhile, was quite unsparing in his criticism of the UPA Government over its policies on vital national and international issues, including reservation for OBCs in higher educational institutions.

On the concluding day of the party's two-day National Executive, the BJP unanimously adopted a political resolution which stated " the UPA has evolved a modus of functioning by which the Prime Minister can be stripped of authority. He is not free to choose his Cabinet. He is not free to dictate the policies of his government. He is now subservient to non-accountable institutions such as the Chairman of the National Advisory Council. The Prime Minister holds office but is not in power. Nor is he perceived to be." The reservation issue, however, once again dominated the day's proceedings with divisions within the BJP on the controversy coming to the fore.

Even though the National Executive unanimously endorsed adopting the middle path on reservation for OBCs in educational institutions, the meeting witnessed some of the top leaders expressing divergent views on the subject.

The BJP leadership, however, asserted that there were no differences within the party on the issue of reservation. The party said it was opposed to exclusion of minority institutions from discharging their share of social justice obligations and there should be no reservation on the basis of relgion. A committee of experts must be set up to examine that these aspects are subserved as building consensus is a must for such initiatives, it said.

The political resolution, which was quite harsh on the Prime Minister, said the biggest casualty of the UPA government had been the governance and its hallmark was its utter disgard for the democratic institutions. "The PMO is the nucleus of India's power centre and UPA had evolved a modus operandi where the PM can be stripped of authority." It said the dilution of Prime Ministerial authority had been compounded by the mushrooming of numerous power centres outside the government. "Alliance partners have realised that the PM can be easily pushed around", the party said. Although the party had been articulating such sentiments orally, recording their sentiments against the PM in the political resolution was a pointer to the level of BJP's disappointment with the UPA Government during its two years in office.

The Left parties ostensibly support the government from outside and yet they exercised the veto that determined the ideological direction of the government. The contradictory and conflicting ideological directions of the ruling party and the Left have paralysed the decision making. The era of taking bold decision is over and India which once strode forward decisively is now crippled by lack of consensus, the BJP noted, highlighting the ''failures'' of the UPA government.

UNI

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