On August 16 last Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee released an election manifesto which, he claimed, was the manifesto of the so-called 'National Democratic Alliance'. But there was neither any definition of the alliance, nor any mention about the parties and groups comprising the same. No name of any party or group could be found at the end of the manifesto. But cleverly the names of groups and parties contained in the 1998 "National Agenda" were included instead. As if those were the parties that comprised the National Democratic Alliance of 1999. But a careful scrutiny would reveal names of parties, which did not belong to the 'NDA', any more.
What a deception! It may be recalled while announcing the formation of "National Democratic Alliance' in May last, the BJP claimed that the alliance had been formed comprising the that supported the Vajpayee govt. and voted in favour of the confidence motion moved in mid-April'99. On that occasion too, not all the parties mentioned had their representatives present there. Similarly, such representatives were conspicuous by their absence during the occasion of releasing he manifesto of the alliance this year. On the contrary some of them had already declared that they did not belong to the socalled alliance, but they would join ministry formed by Vajpayee if and when the alliance came to power after the scheduled elections ahead. Trinamool Congress of West Bengal was one such party. This was not only deception, but also dirty example of utmost opportunism. In fact, the manifesto released was not that of any alliance. It was plain and simple a manifesto of the BJP. The "alliance" label had been used to show that AB Vajpayee was not the leader of BJP alone, he was a "national leader" too!
But nobody could be made a "national" leader by deception and opportunistic tactics. Nor could the alienation of a party from the people could be covered by such self-proclamations.
Deception was there not only relating to the name of the alliance, but it was also evident so far as the items of agenda were concerned. One illustration would be sufficient. The manifesto had proclaimed that it was in the hands of the 13-month-old Vajpayee government that national security was safe and solid, and would remain so if the same government were returned to power! All this after the well-known lack of vigilance alertness and himalayan inaction regarding the intrusion of Pak forces in Kargil!

23rd August, 1999.