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Devil's Advocate: Arun Jaitley
Published on Sun, Sep 03, 2006 at 20:30, Updated on Mon, Sep 04, 2006 at 09:35 in section
Tags: Devils Advocate, Karan Thapar
BJP General Secretary and National Spokesperson Arun Jaitley addresses some critical questions like the issue of succession in the party leadership, his party’s stand on the Volcker report and Natwar Singh, on the nuclear deal and on Vande Mataram in an exclusive interview to Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate.
Karan Thapar: Hello and welcome to Devil’s Advocate. As the BJP prepares for its national executive on Thursday, how does it face up to the fact that national opinion polls are showing that its popularity is sharply falling? That’s the key question I shall put to the party’s General Secretary and National Spokesperson Arun Jaitley.
Mr Jaitley, two national opinion polls within a space of two weeks showing that even after 27 months of the general election, at a time when you should be benefiting from the incumbency of the government, the Congress is actually soaring in the polls and the BJP is sharply falling. Do you concede that you have a problem?
Arun Jaitley: Well, I am one of those who never rubbishes polls. Polls may not be accurate, or polls at a time when an election is not in the offing may not give you an accurate trend. But polls are always indicative. Both the polls, which I have seen, have broadly indicated that there is a four to six per cent voting difference between UPA and NDA, with NDA trailing behind. I have broadly two reactions to these polls.
The first, of course, I concede that there is a gap and the gap is in favour of the UPA. At the same time, there is an interesting paradox that the polls present. When individual questions are asked about issues on whether they have comfort level and satisfaction with regard to the performance of the government barring the issue of handling of foreign policy where normally the government of the day gets the benefit of doubt, on every other issue, people are completely dissatisfied with the government.
Karan Thapar: That’s only if you go by the CNN-IBN poll. But if you turn to the India Today poll, it shows that more people think that the Congress is able to handle problems in the country. They are more concerned about poverty and it is more secure in terms of giving a stable government. In other words, in all those issues, people have lost faith in the BJP party governance
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