The Hindu : Digvijay a non-performing CM, says Mahajan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 11, 2003

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Digvijay a non-performing CM, says Mahajan

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL MAY 10. The BJP general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, said today that the coming Madhya Pradesh Assembly election would be fought on the issue of development and ``all the havoc that has been wrought on this State by the Digvijay Singh Government in the last 10 years''.

Mr. Mahajan, accompanied by the Union Minister, Arun Jaitley, Madhya Pradesh BJP president, Kailash Joshi and the BJP's star campaigner, Uma Bharti, was addressing a press conference here today.

Mr. Mahajan said that the Congress party had been in power in Madhya Pradesh for over 40 years since the formation of the State in 1956. Lashing out at the Chief Minister, he said that Mr. Singh, who had been at the helm of affairs continuously for the past 10 years, could only demonstrate how ``crafty and clever'' he could be. When it comes to performance, he could be summed up only as a non-performing Chief Minister, Mr. Mahajan added.

Reacting to the Chief Minister's letter which he had sent to Mr. Jaitley refuting his allegation that Madhya Pradesh was lagging behind most other States in terms of development which was based on a CII report, Mr. Mahajan said that the report in question had been prepared by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Comparative Studies. Mr. Singh's reply, he said was like that of a student, who started making lame excuses after failing in his examination. He further pointed towards the latest India Today study comparing the performance of 19 States between 1991 and 2001 and said Madhya Pradesh had fared very poorly with five negative growth factors out of eight. On the Agriculture front, Madhya Pradesh ranked fourth in 1991 but had been pushed to the 13th position by 2001. Similarly, the slide down was also amply visible on the market, affluence and investment front, he added.

Mr. Mahajan rebuked the Chief Minister's claims with regard to the State Government's initiative on the poverty alleviation front and said that 37.53 per cent of the Madhya Pradesh population lived below the poverty line. The State finds itself at the rock bottom only after Orissa and Bihar on the poverty line issue.

Mr. Mahajan said that the national per capita income was Rs. 16,487 whereas it is only Rs. 10,833 in Madhya Pradesh. In 1993, the per capita income in the State was Rs. 6577 and if one took into consideration the price index, the actual rise in per capita income in the State worked out to merely Rs. 26 in the last 10-year period.

Mr. Mahajan said that the Chief Minister had not been able to reply to the charges we had levelled against him. He also said that the BJP was not armed merely with a CII report but plenty of national and international studies, including those conducted by the UNDP and the Planning Commission, that point to the fact that Mr. Digvijay Singh had achieved nothing.

While emphasising that Mr. Singh had done nothing except ``destroying the State'', Mr. Mahajan said that people now had a choice — they either vote for more destruction or end Digvijay Singh's rule and give a fresh lease of life to the State.

When asked to comment on the ``credibility'' of the studies reflecting upon the performance of the Digvijay Singh Government, the BJP leader said, ``we are looking at so many different reports and they all have drawn the same conclusion''.

Mr. Jaitley said that he had more statistics to corner Mr. Singh on the issue of development. He said that Mr. Singh, who had always tried to divert attention, had now been trapped on the issue of development. He also emphasised that the Assembly election would be contested on the issue of development.

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Digvijay a non-performing CM, says Mahajan