BJP is on offensive: Parrikar

Sandesh Prabhudesai
12 April 2002  

While the media circle gathered in Goa from all over India is trying to contemplate the strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party the way it went for sudden dissolution of the Gujarat Assembly, Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar said it all.

"It simply means the BJP is on offensive", said Parrikar.

Gujarat is the second state going for dissolution midway after Goa Assembly was dissolved in a similar manner on 27 February, while Gujarat had just started burning with communal passion.

According to Parrikar, the young chief minister who ruled only for 16 months of the 32-month long term of the state Assembly here, the action of Assembly dissolution in Gujarat will also put the Congress on the defensive.

It is a fact that the Congress here was in total confusion when Parrikar suddenly went for dissolution of the Goa Assembly, fearing toppling of his government by his own partymen, with yet another defection.

Does it also mean a clear signal to the allies of the National Democratic Alliance, who were also asking for Modi's head ?

"Of course", states Parrikar, "if you read in between lines of the prime minister's speech at the public rally, the message is very clear".

Giving up his balancing acts of all these days, Vajpayee at the rally literally lashed out at the Muslim community as a whole, while also stating that the communal violence sparked off due to Godhra incident, where karsevaks going to Ayodhya were killed in Sabarmati Express.

BJP president Jana Krishnamurthy also added to it a bit, when asked whether dissolution is a strategy in principle the party is following to anyone who tries to dislodge the BJP-ruled government - a full-fledged or a coalition.

"If anyone tries to demand head of the state in a similar manner, we well definitely follow the similar strategy", said Krishnamurthy, leaving journalists to predict also the fate of the NDA government and its allies.

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