We will obviously campaign for Modi, he brings us votes: Jaitley

BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Tuesday rebuffed criticism that the BJP had become a one-man party, saying that even Narendra Modi knew that it was impossible for one man to run an entire country. Responding to a question by Rajdeep Sardesai on a hangout hosted by Network 18 in collaboration with Google, about whether he was canvassing for votes for the BJP or votes for Narendra Modi, Jaitley said, “What we are working towards is a strong BJP led, NDA government at the centre. When we have someone like Narendra Modi who is charismatic and get more votes for us to achieve that objective, then why would I not canvass for him?” Jaitley also rebuffed criticism by rebel BJP leader Jaswant Singh that the BJP had become a dangerous one man party.   “If Mr Jaswant Singh had made these comments even a week earlier, I would have taken it more seriously”, he said, dropping an obvious hint that the ‘warnings’ by Singh had only been made after he was denied a BJP ticket from Barmer. “Yeh jo Namo Namo, nirnaya lene ki prakriya shuru hui hai,yeh mujhe ‘75 ki yaad dilata hai,ismei ahankaar zyada hai (This Namo, Namo and the manner in which decisions are being taken reminds me of 1975 and it is a sign of arrogance), " Jaswant Singh had said. Jaitley himself had blogged prior to this, strongly hinting that Jaswant should accept the decision of the central election commission: Membership of political party is a privilege. It is also an act of self oppression where personal views and ambitions are subjected to the collective wisdom of the party. At times, the party may flood leaders with privileges and positions. On other occasions, the leader may have to take “no” as an answer to his desires. How does a politician or a leader react to such “no”? He must accept the decision with a smile. This becomes a test of his loyalty and discipline. Restraint and silence are always a preferred option. Over-reaction may prove be a transient storm in a tea cup. Silence is always dignified and more gracious. [caption id=“attachment_1450095” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screengrab from the Google hangout[/caption] Jaswant Singh had reacted to this saying, “It is impressive that Mr Jaitley should flaunt discipline but the decision for the Barmer seat was not taken by the central election committee”. Apart from Narendra Modi and Jaswant Singh, Arun Jaitley also warned against a fractured mandate in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and the Aam Aadmi Party in particular. Calling the possibility of a fractured mandate a ‘disaster’ for India, Jaitley said that this was why the BJP had a very clear target of 272, so that such a situation would be avoided. ‘Any party that has to depend on the Aam Aadmi Party for a government is an unstable government”, he warned. Jaitley also said that he did not agree with AAP’s politics of seeing scams everywhere, and their policy of taking on corporates just because they were the front runners in any particular field. He also spoke on other aspects of both his, and the BJP poll campaign. He said that his decision to contest the Lok Sabha elections was not unusual, given that he had been in active politics for so long now. “For the last so many years, fortunately or unfortunately, I have been in charge of organising election campaigns. This time however, the party decided that enough was enough and that it was time for me to also contest and I must say I am reveling in it”, he said. Jaitley also reiterated some of the BJP’s economic views and standpoints. He repeated his opposition to FDI in retail, saying that without internal reforms it would not work for India. “It is not just the loss of retail jobs, but also the manufacturing sector. There need to be many more internal reforms before such a step can take place”, he said, adding that “There would be Indian stores selling fancy Chinese goods, owned by Americans, with Indians as salesboys and girls.” In addition to this, he spoke on GST (the BJP was in favour of the measure and would try to implement it on priority), judicial reforms (More judges were needed on an urgent basis) and cyber security (an urgent need for India which was under threat).