The opportunism of the alliance forged by the BJP became amply clear in the thirteen-month period of the Vajpayee government. It was the unscrupulous nature of this formation which resulted in its collapse in April, 1998. The new name given to the combination, "National Democratic Alliance" cannot hide the continuing basis of the opportunist alliance.

The present manifesto by and large repeats the basic positions taken in last year's agenda document. The only difference being the addition of strident nationalism for cashing in on the Kargil conflict provoked by Pakistan.

The so-called Agenda for National Governance is no agenda at all. For, driven by the desire to retain power at all costs, the RSS-BJP combine has decided not to bring forward its real agenda before the people. As in the 1998 agenda, the present document too does not mention any of the basic policy positions of the Hindutva Brigade. There is no mention of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, the amendment of Article 30 or the uniform civil code. Unlike in 1998, the BJP has been careful not to bring out its own manifesto, in case the contradiction between its positions and those of its allies become too glaring. The call for a "moratorium on contentious issues" is addressed more to its own alliance than to the people. The RSS-BJP combine wants sufficient time to consolidate its hold on State power before such contentious issues come back openly on its agenda.

The record of the Vajpayee government shows that at no time was its real agenda kept in abeyance. Despite the talk of treating all citizens on the basis of equality in the 1998 Agenda, the period of the BJP-led government saw the most vicious attacks against the Christian community all over the country. The "genuine" secularism talked about in the Agenda, then and now, is the term used by the BJP to debunk real secular values. The communal riots in Karnataka and the siege of the Muslim community in Gujarat, including the latest round of riots in Ahmedabad city, are a grim reminder of the communal gameplan of the Hindutva forces to cow down the minorities through an atmosphere of intimidation and majoritarian intolerance.

The NDA manifesto prescribes right-wing economics in a shameless manner. It uses the standard trick of declaring itself neither for the "leftist approach" nor the "rightist approach". It is simply for a pro-big business approach. This has led to the Confederation of Indian Industry chief, Rahul Bajaj, to declare that the "NDA manifesto is more reform oriented and more pro-Indian industry than the Congress manifesto".

Contrary to what the NDA says in the manifesto that nothing would be done to undermine "the national economy, the indigenous industrial base and the financial and services sectors", the practice of the Vajpayee government is one of eroding domestic industry by indiscriminate liberalisation of imports, unfair concessions to foreign capital and willingness to open up the insurance sector to foreign capital. The refrain of "Swadeshi" sounds tired and hackneyed after all this. In the field of agriculture, instead of increasing public investment, more and more, the government took steps to allow multinational corporations in agriculture and promote privatisation of irrigation.

The NDA agenda reiterates its commitment to liquidate the public sector by promising "restructuring, rehabilitation and divestment". This is in keeping with the traditional animus of the BJP towards the public sector.

The BJP-led coalition's talk of providing a better deal to labour, eradication of unemployment and food security sound hollow given its dismal record. It is the Vajpayee government, which promoted the violation of labour laws by the employers by making the enforcement machinery ineffective. As for unemployment, the agenda has wisely refused to commit to generate one crore employment annually, as the BJP manifesto did last year.

It is in the field of the Public Distribution System that the Vajpayee government exposed its anti-poor character the most. By dismantling the Public Distribution System and rendering it ineffective in areas where it had governed for a long time in the states, the BJP actively aided and abetted profiteering by big traders who are its major constituency. It will not be forgotten by the people that in the one year of BJP rule, the prices of wheat, rice and sugar were increased by 40 to 60 per cent in the PDS.

The manifesto speaks of enlarging states' rights like the Agenda in 1998. After trying to dismiss the Bihar government twice using Article 356, to talk of implementing the Sarkaria Commission's recommendations is just downright hypocritical.

A distinctive feature of the manifesto is the total avoidance of vital policy decisions taken which were pursued by the Vajpayee government. It is incredible that there is no mention about the government agreeing to sign the CTBT or the growing ties with the USA negotiated clandestinely through the Jaswant Singh-Strobe Talbott talks. The manifesto pretends as if none of these developments took place in the past one year! The most damning aspect of the manifesto is the silence on these issues. The Vajpayee government has been the most pro-American regime after independence. It compromised India's national interests by making a commitment to sign the CTBT by September, 1999 before the government fell.

After the nuclear tests in Pokhran, the Vajpayee government took the harmful step of nuclear weaponisation. The manifesto promises to pursue this disastrous path by talking of "establishing a credible nuclear deterrence". There is no explanation why this "nuclear strength" failed to prevent the Pakistan sponsored border conflict in Kargil.

The Vajpayee government hopes to cover up all this with its claim of a big victory in Kargil. There is no word of remorse or self-criticism about the gross bungling in failing to detect the large-scale Pakistani intrusion in the Kargil area, which cost the lives of over 400 soldiers. Even the farcical review committee constituted finds no mentions.

In order to implement the right-wing economic agenda and to came forward its anti-secular programme, the BJP-RSS combine requires an authoritarian framework. This cannot be openly and directly advocated but the agenda contains all the necessary ingredients for such a authoritarian system.

Some of these are:

1. The reiteration of the need to review the Constitution. This is the devise favoured by the BJP to undermine the secular character of the Indian Constitution.
2. The undermining of parliamentary democracy by the advocacy of a presidential system is now supplemented by the promise to amend the Constitution to ensure a fixed term of five years for Parliament and legislatures. Such a step would mean that compulsorily governments consisting of diverse parties must be formed irrespective of whether they have a common understanding or responsibility to the people. The BJP has shamelessly proposed this Constitutional change to perpetuate itself in power.
3. The other related proposal of replacing a no confidence motion with the German system of "constructive vote of non-confidence" is nothing but another device to prevent being ousted from power. As per this proposal, the government cannot be voted out unless there is an alternative government proposal in place. Such are the lengths to which this so-called democratic alliance will go to remain in office without a mandate.
4. The proposal to exclude naturalised Indian citizens from holding high office, reveals the RSS mindset which wishes to relegate non-Hindus and those following "foreign" religions to the status of second-class citizens.