BJP not to dilute economic agenda
Rajesh Ramachandran in New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party may not dilute its economic policies in its national agenda.
Finalised today at a meeting of the BJP and its allies at Prime Minister-designate Atal Bihari Vajpayee's home, the document will be released tomorrow.
"We will not change the basic structure of our economic policies. There will be a cautious approach towards foreign investment," a BJP economic ideologue told Rediff On The NeT,, refuting reports that the party has been forced to whittle down its national agenda.
He denied that the party would open up certain sectors of the economy like the insurance industry to foreign participation.
The party, whose economic agenda was drafted as per Samata Party president George Fernandes's wishes, proposes to allow Indian private companies into the insurance sector while restricting foreign investment to the core areas.
Meanwhile, former party president Dr Murli Manohar Joshi seems to be emerging as the front-runner for the finance minister's post.
A staunch supporter of the party's swadeshi agenda, Dr Joshi reportedly has the backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh.
However, with Vajpayee proposing former finance minister Jaswant Singh's name for the post, the saffron brigade seems to be locked in a tussle even as another name has cropped. That of the Bihar unit president Yashwant Sinha who has the support of party president Lal Kishinchand Advani.
The latter will be the number two in the Cabinet with the home portfolio.
Elections '98
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