CALCUTTA, January 2: Former Union finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh, has said that only the Congress has the capability to ensure 10 million new jobs every year and sustain a high economic growth essential for the next century.Speaking to mediapersons, Dr Singh said that with the nation just two years away from the next century, it was imperative that a political party which would ensure all-round growth for the nation should be voted to power in the coming election. Neither the ``divided and the opportunist UF nor the communal BJP'' have any integrated national perspective before them, Dr Singh asserted.
Writing off the Congress-backed UF's 18-month rule as ``lost opportunity and a sheer political and economic wastage,'' Dr Singh, who was addressing a press conference with Gulam Nabi Azad, said the ``nation cannot pay the price of trusting a party like the BJP which has a dangerous track record of demolishing the Babri Majid for political gains''.
Asserting that the coming election would be fought
between the BJP and the Congress, Dr Singh said the BJP's growth ``has threatened basic Indian concept of unity in diversity and the growth of an open and secular society''. He accused the BJP of brazenly using the religious card to consolidate its hold on the people.
Earlier, Gulam Nabi Azad, flanked by the West Bengal PCC chief, Somen Mitra and general secretary, Manas Bhuian, said the BJP's assurance of ``a stable government was the biggest joke of the '97''. ``The BJP is a party which depends on defectors,'' Azad said adding, ``There will a split between the hardliners and moderates and the party will collapse much before the actual election is over.''
He also dismissed the BJP's claim of providing a clean and corruption-free government as political opportunism, saying that the party, which had been clamouring against defectors has turned out to be their champion. ``The CPM should not behave like a national party,'' he said, asking the CPM to give up its ``rabid anti-Congressism'' and spell out its
stand before the elections if it wanted to defeat the communal forces.
Referring to the left front's allegations that the Centre discriminated against West Bengal, Dr Singh said the State had failed to create an environment-friendly investment climate.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
