February 20: Five minutes seemed too short a time to crow about the performance of their respective political parties. But for the audience at the public meeting organised by the Giants International, it was a soap operatic view of poll issues.Representing their parties at the "Why my party?" meet at the KC College auditorium were Congress leader Kripashankar Singh, Shiv Sena's Pramod Navalkar, Bharatiya Janata Party's Prakash Jawdekar, Samajwadi Party's Ramesh Doshi and the Janata Dal's Baburao Samant. The panelists comprised writer Shobha De, journalist Vishwanath Sachdev and lawyer Y P Trivedi.
The BJP harped on stability, the Congress on its glorious past, the SBP and JD on the virtues of coalition politics. Conceding his party's state-level agenda, Sena leader Pramod Navalkar assured that there wouldn't be riots in the city as long as the Sena-BJP government was in power.
Giants International chairman Nana Chudasama who chaired the discussion dripped with acid wit that characterise his banners onMarine Drive. "Abu Asim Azmi couldn't make it today, maybe he's gone to meet some tenants," he said dead pan, amidst guffaws from the audience.
Congress leader Singh tried to evoke the nostalgia of the glorious Congress rule under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, to a disbelieving audience. "We didn't manufacture even a pin, now we make aircrafts and nuclear bombs for "peaceful purposes," he thundered. But Shobha De squarely blamed Congress for the country's problems. Speaking about the obsessive security surrounding Sonia Gandhi, she wondered why a country of nearly 1 billion couldn't produce a single candidate for the prime ministerial post.
"he reason why the Congress withdrew support to the UF isn't even a poll issue this time," said BJP's Jawdekar adding that stability which would be provided by the BJP was the only poll issue. The SP's Doshi was unconvinced. "An unstable government is a responsible government since it has to perform in a limited period," he reasoned, citing examples of the 55post-war governments in Italy which had ensured a higher per capita income than all the stable governments in the UK.
Was the voter convinced? "What about the real issues? Nobody's talking about the economy and inflation," said office goer P P Sherdekar who'd dropped by the hall on his way home.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
