The BJP may or may not vote against the 1993-94 budget. It is its pleasure. It can nevertheless be more honest than appears to be the case- in its criticism of the Centre’s economic policy. It is the duty of the Opposition to oppose but it cannot be a case of opposition merely for the sake of opposition.
When any policy framed by the government is alike in its detail and import with the policy formulated by the Opposition, the latter would enhance its prestige by conceding it to be so. The BJP does not wish to ensure this. In the process. it only makes itself the laughing stock of critics.
The BJP, like the Congress. wants liberalisation of the economy, lower interest rates and lighter taxation. But it does not have the elegance to applaud an opponent when he acts properly. Instead, it strives to invent foibles and blame them on the government.
For instance, the BJP faults the government for not pulling the interest rate down to 4 per cent. At the same time, it recognises that such a reduction cannot be effected at one go.
Everyone wishes that the deficit as a proportion of the gross national product should be brought down to zero. Dr. Manmohan Singh expects it to go down to 1.9 per cent. If industry behaves better and investment expectations are not belied, there can be nil deficit in the next budget.
The BJP knows this. It also knows that the gaps in infrastructure in the form of domestic availability cannot be eliminated overnight. Demand for crude petroleum is 57 million tonne. Domestic output is 28.65 million tonne.
There are supply shortages in kerosene, LPG, and diesel. These would call for imports. The overall import bill cannot, at short notice, be met by a surge in appropriate dimension in the earnings of net foreign exchange. The BJP knows this also.
Yet it would fault the government for the gape in achievement. If the BJP were in power, it could not have done better. Perhaps it would have fared worse. That Is because, whatever be the BJP’s excuses, the foreign investor will be shy to invest if the country were in charge of fundamentalists.
Another criticism levelled against the government by the BJP is that the economic policy has not opened up the internal economy as much it has opened up the external. The fault, as the BJP knows. is not of the government but of industry which is not reconciled to losing its sheltered market.
Mr Malkani and many other big wigs of the BJP are sore over the Economic Survey blaming the recession and drop in investment on Ayodhya. They want only refuse to see that the Ayodhya tragedy came up just when the foreign investor was feeling like investing in India. In that sense it was a dampener.
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