BJP National Council meeting: Uri terror attacks, ‘Garib Kalyan’ dominate day 1
It will also showcase the BJP’s new slogan against poverty as the party attempts to occupy the political space that the Congress appropriated for many years with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s famous “Garibi Hatao” or remove poverty battle cry.
Party MP and President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Anurag Thakur’s assertion that India will not play Pakistan also veered the focus away from the BJP’s pro-poor agenda. And the question does not arise to play with Pakistan today.
Responding to a poser that Russian Federation joining military exercise with Pakistan is against India’s claim that Islamabad has been isolated diplomatically, Madhav said, “We will wait and see”.
Mr Madhav had been asked about his comment immediately after the terrorist attack on an Army base in J&K’s Uri that killed 18 soldiers. BJP chief Amit Shah dropped enough hints of the hard-hitting public address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday saying the time has come to translate utterances of the leaders on issues of terrorism into action.
The National Council meet, dedicated to Upadhyaya, would conclude on September 25, the day the late leader was born.
BJP fielded its general secretary Ram Madhav, who has advocated punitive action against Pakistan, before the media to outline the Council’s focus on “antyodaya” (uplift of the last man) and say how it is an occasion for the party to rededicate itself to Upadhyay’s ideals. Even PM Modi began his speech with a remark on how people from the state were respected across the world for their “honesty and hard work”.
While the party’s “garib kalyan” (welfare of poor) agenda will remain a key theme in the meeting of over 1,700 delegates being held in the birth centenary year of its ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay, there is acknowledgement that it will have to address the concerns, especially of its cadres and nationalist constituency, in view of the terror attack.
BJP President Amit Shah is chairing the meeting attended by top party leaders from across the country. BJP has been out of power in Uttar Pradesh for over 14 years and Shah has claimed that it will make a comeback with two-third majority by trouncing formidable regional rivals like Samajwadi Party and BSP. “We have few local parties working with BJP in the state, we will try and rise as a forceful opposition to LDF in Kerala”, he said. “Days of so-called strategic restraint are over”, he had said then.