A very practical, mature, effective, interesting Advani's speech

Advani is a changed man today. Since 2004, he has reinvented himself by being more acceptable and approachable by everyone. This is a part -1 series of this reflection. The second one will be his speech at FII. His speech sounds very real mixed with real economics of the future India.

This speech which he gave at the BJP national executive reflects some very interesting and real facets of changing political landscape in india. Why is his speech important? It is because he has tried to highlight how weak is the UPA govt and how BJP must reinvent itself and not just sit quiet. Congress party must now make itself stronger if it has to defeat BJP. One thing is sure. It is either UPA or NDA. I have no issues with either, but Left should not be a part of government.

Let me highlight rather than putting forward the whole speech.

• I have called Karnataka victory a ‘turning point’ in Indian politics, and compared it with that in 1989, when the BJP spectacularly increased its tally in the Lok Sabha from only two MPs in 1984 to 86 MPs five years later. Thereafter, the BJP’s strength continued to rise and, just under a decade later in 1998, we were able to form the government at the Centre under the leadership of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

• An important aspect of the present political situation in the country is that the Congress is now gradually shrinking all over the country — in north, south, west and east. It is suffering from the syndrome of "one step forward, three steps backward". This is evident from the fact that the party has suffered defeats in as many as 12 state elections since May 2004.

• Obviously, the Congress party’s being in power at the Centre for four years has not helped it even one bit in any of these states. Is this not a severe indictment of the party’s central leadership? Is this also not a proof of the total and irrefutable failure of the UPA government? Doesn’t it show that neither the Congress party’s dynastic leadership nor the track record of the Prime Minister and his team inspire any confidence among the people of India? All except the sycophants of the ‘Dynasty’ can see this reality.Even the allies of the Congress have concluded that the UPA is a "write-off" as far as the 15th Lok Sabha elections are concerned.

• How a weak government, a powerless PM and an opportunistic Congress-Left pact are endangering India

• UPA Govt converted governance into pure commerce.

• The belated announcement of a loan waiver is at best a palliative, but a palliative can never be a panacea.

• Here is a government that has mismanaged the internal security situation so badly that not a single case of terrorist attack in the past four years has been fully investigated, and the guilty brought to book. On the contrary, it has given protection to the guilty purely for vote-bank considerations. Indeed, what can be a greater insult to our national honour than the fact that we have a Home Minister who publicly justifies giving protection to Mohammed Afzal by equating his case with that of Sarabjeet Singh?

• Clearly bending under foreign pressure, its leadership did not even deem it necessary to observe the 10th anniversary of Pokharan II. On the contrary, its spokesmen had the temerity to state publicly that there was no need for celebration since sanctions were imposed on India as a consequence of the NDA government’s action. When such is the warped mindset of the government, it is hardly surprising that it has sought to disarm India of its strategic defense capability through the flawed Indo-US nuclear deal.

• Can India be safe, can India progress and can India ever become strong if we have a paralysed government led by a visionless party, headed by a powerless Prime Minister, and supported by a bunch of opportunists whose faith in democracy itself is suspect?

• BJP is a "frontrunner"; let’s now make it a "clear winner"

• India simply cannot afford to have another weak government that is at the vagaries of a fragmented polity. Given the formidable challenges before the nation, and the mounting problems facing our people, India would be severely imperiled if the next elections produce an unstable government at the Centre.

• Therefore, my esteemed colleagues, it is not enough that the BJP merely forms the next government at the Centre. It is extremely important that ours is a strong and stable government, with the BJP having sufficient numerical strength that would enable us to pursue our agenda of Good Governance, Development and Security.

• Once again, the time has come for the BJP to remind ourselves of our inherent strength. Our peak performance so far has been in 1999, when we won 182 seats in the Lok Sabha. In 2009, we must not only go way beyond our tally in 2004, but actually surpass our record in 1999. Is it possible? Yes, it is.

• In Congress circles, there is hope that the party would be able to take advantage of the "anti-incumbency" factor in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh. All members of the National Executive should understand that "anti-incumbency" does not operate only or always against a government or a chief minister. It generally manifests as a vote against incumbent MLAs or MPs. And the voters’ displeasure depends not so much on their representative’s performance in the Assembly or in Parliament as on his or her conduct with the people of their constituency. Voters — and even karyakartas — punish those who are arrogant, unresponsive, inactive, inaccessible and insincere.

• Another important task before us is the need to intensify mass-contact programmes, in which it should be our endeavour to reach out to every section of society, including those, such as Muslims and Christians, who have so far remained aloof from the BJP.

• We should emphasise that our party seeks the all-round development and participation of minorities in a non-divisive and integrative agenda without recourse to appeasement or religion-based reservations. In all our mass campaigns, we should not only highlight the UPA government’s failures, but also explain our own superior agenda of governance.

• Let us, therefore, resolve at this meeting of the National Executive not to waste a single day, not to ignore a single task, and not to neglect a single winnable seat in order to achieve our goal of securing a decisive majority for the NDA,