Vajpayee: Left alone?

New Delhi, June 9: Atal Bihari Vajpayee may be insisting on an introspection, but the BJP was desperate today to shift the glare away from the Rahul Mahajan episode, launching a concerted attack on the economic policies of the UPA government.

In Gwalior to attend a family wedding, Vajpayee said this morning that his comments on Rahul had been “misinterpreted”.

The former Prime Minister was the first in the party to come to Rahul’s rescue by maintaining that his was a “mistake of the youth”.

After the statement was perceived as condoning Rahul’s lifestyle, Vajpayee today said he was talking from a “human perspective”.

“Mistakes can be made by people and by the party. It will take time to rectify them. After this (Mahajan) episode, there is a need for introspection by the BJP,” he said.

Vajpayee added that the law would, of course, take its own course and “those who made mistakes would have to pay for them”.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar, however, refused to elaborate on the party’s reaction vis-a-vis Pramod Mahajan’s son.

“There is nothing to talk about. The son of a very prominent leader is in trouble and some people from the party went to see him yesterday. There is no difference between what Vajpayeeji said and what the party has maintained from the beginning,” Javdekar said.

“There are other issues for the party to air its opinion on. That is precisely what we are doing.”

Making a presentation on the state of agriculture, fluctuating sensex and the oil price hike, Javdekar and the head of BJP’s investor cell, Kirit Somaya, demanded that the government come out with a special mid-term economic review.

On the United Progressive Alliance’s overall performance on the economic front, they said there are some “very worrying trends”.

“Normally, the mid-term review is presented later in the year. But the situation on the economic front is so scary that we are demanding a special mid-term review from the government,” said Javdekar.

The BJP has been carrying on a public campaign against the price hike and is likely to take it up, along with 40 other issues, in the monsoon session of Parliament. The demand for the mid-term review lays the foundation for the party turning its low-scale public campaign into a massive, long-term agitation. Some of the issues in focus are:

• Crisis in agriculture
• Endangered food security
• Farmers’ suicide
• Rising interest rates on all types of credit
• Wheat import

The Rahul episode, however, surfaced at various levels throughout the day. The head of BJP’s culture cell, Shatrughan Sinha, launched an attack on Delhi police for the way they are handling the case. Rahul needed the BJP’s “emotional support” in his hour of crisis, Sinha said.