BJP national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh Tarun Chugh said the party would go to Punjab polls next year with a roadmap to free the state from the clutches of mounting debt, drugs and crimes. During the 32nd edition of the Delhi Dialogues organised by TNIE, he refuted the claims of the Opposition parties that the BJP is mopping up two-thirds majority in Parliament to change the Constitution.
Excerpts:
Santwana Bhattacharya: Punjab will go to elections next year. For the first time there is talk that there may not be an alliance. Why do you want to go alone?
The BJP has played a major role in Punjab since the 1950s. Until 1997, we never fought elections with the Akali Dal. Now, in the interest of the state, we want to form our own government.
Punjab is facing a `500 lakh crore debt burden. Our next three generations can’t pay it off. Industrial growth is on a decline. Farming has stopped at one level. Crime rate is very high. Gangsters and drug menace haunt the state. We have the goverbance expertise to get a state out of a crisis. Under our rule, Rajasthan, UP, MP and Bihar could shed the BIMARU tag. We have experience as well as a roadmap for the state.
Dipak Mondal: What is your roadmap? Punjab’s debt accounts for 46% of its SGDP.
In my mind, and in the the plans of my party, there is a clear roadmap. In Punjab, we will have to bring a big revolution in farming. Along with growth, we will have to stand by the farmers. Currently, MSP is given for only two crops-- wheat and rice. In BJP-ruled neighbouring Haryana, 18 crops get MSP.
Second, farming will have to be connected to the industry. After 1977, not a single SEZ has been set up in Punjab. Industry should be connected to commerce. And commerce should be connected to the service sector. Also, Punjab has high tourism potential. We have historical places. We have two key border posts, Atari and Ferozpur, where big parades take place. I belong to Amritsar. Nearly 250,000 people come to Golden Temple every day. There are war memorials. Farming to tourism will lay the road for Punjab’s recovery.
Preetha Nair: Do you have a face in Punjab?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Today, in this country, if someone talks about delivery, then Narendra Modi comes first. I will tell you a story of Meghalaya. I asked a woman if she is getting food from the food scheme of the Prime Minister. She said they used to get ration in small poly bags, now they get it in sacks. At least 80 crore people are getting food. Around 4 million people, irrespective of their religion, have got a house.
Modi ji says think globally, work locally. Apart from toilet, cooking gas and houses, Prime Minister Modi talks about uranium, microchip, and friendship with the world. West Asia is with us, Russia is with us, and America is also with us. I don’t believe that there is any other face other than the Prime Minister. In Punjab polls, Modi ji is our face.
Mukesh Ranjan: Can you win Punjab by yourself?
Punjabis are in trouble. They tried to find a solution in the Congress but it failed. The Akalis couldn’t save them. Then they experimented with the AAP. I can tell you thousands of things that have been done for Punjab during Modi’s tenure. What has the current government done in Punjab? Have they even built a room in a school? Modi Ji has opened a cancer institute in Malwa, a PGI in Ferozepur, two medical colleges in Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala at `100 crore each.
Industry is leaving Punjab. CEOs of 10 big companies do not stay in Punjab.
Green Revolution happened in Punjab. We gave wheat and rice to the whole country. But we should have sold flour to the country. Then India’s flour mills would have been in my Punjab. So farming was not connected to the industry. Punjab now banks on the BJP for a solution to its crisis.
Mukesh Ranjan: The drug issue is important. Children are being killed for Rs 15,000-50,000. Drugs and weapons are coming from across the border. During the time of the Congress, there was fencing. Despite this, drugs are available and weapons are being dropped. I think the Centre should partly own up its failure.
In the ’80s, there was a route called the gold smuggling route. Later it became the weapon s route. This was before the fencing. You can go to Pakistan and come back to India. There was no wall. There is no natural border. There is no river, no mountain that divides.
Atal ji said in 1984 that if we want to save Punjab, we will have to build a wall there. There was a lot of criticism. Then the government found a solution -- fencing. Frequent and free transit was stopped. Fencing was a protective cover. Now Pakistan sends weapons and drugs through drones. The BSF or any security agency cannot stop it. The Prime Minister started thinking about it.
Instruments which have just been tested will be able to stop the drones. If the drone stops, it will become a wall.
Santwana Bhattacharya: You are talking about your state Punjab with passion. But you represent Madhya Pradesh in Parliament. Recently, there has been some adverse report. And your chief minister has been under the scanner on those issues. So what are you anticipating and what do you think you are going to put forward?
I have never done anything big in Madhya Pradesh politics but have the debt of the people of MP since I have taken their vote. So I will represent them. I will also raise Punjab issues because I was born there and I have done politics there.
Rajesh Thakur: The Opposition alleges that the BJP is breaking other parties. What do you have to say about this?
You will have to understand that there are rules of democracy. If so many people want, they can break a party and leave it. We have not violated the rules anywhere. And you ask those people who have defected. They will talk about the pressure they faced in their parties. They have raised the issue of family rule over democracy.
Preetha Nair: Are the defections happened because the government is planning to reintroduce the delimitation bill which needs two-third majority in Parliament for its passage? Are you planning to change the Constitution?
Can anyone change the Constitution of India? These people who run the narrative are trying to change the Constitution. One must study when and what kind of amendments took place during the BJP rule. Our amendments are related to the empowerment of the OBCs and women. Their (Opposition) amendments were focused on increasing tenures of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha to 6 years to empower Indira Gandhi and to destabilise opposition-ruled state governments.
Rajesh Thakur: Will the BJP give proportional reservation to OBCs?
The rules are being framed. The PM has talked openly about caste census.
