Kottayam, Mar 11: The Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party was a party with a difference. Addressing a public meeting at the Gandhi square here this morning as part of his 'Bharat Uday Yatra', he recalled the photo published in a Hindi newspaper showing Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and Vice-President Bhairon Singh Sekhawat sitting besides each other and he standing behind them on the occassion of the prime minister's birthday. ''The paper also published alongside another picture showing the three together during the formation of Jansangh in 1953,'' he added to drive home the point that they were not party hoppers and stood for principles. Advani said he was getting good response to his yatra from the public. Several Christian and Muslim religious leaders visited him yesterday and today. In fact, a Muslim religious leader came from Ajmer to participate in the flagging-off ceremony of the yatra, he added.
He alleged that despite a huge human resource potential, the ''negative politics'' of the Congress and the Left parties had stalled the progress of the state. He said the Congress and the communists were ''B-teams'' of each other. ''They have an alliance in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. In Jammu and Kashmir, the CPI(M) helped the Congress pass a bill that blatantly discriminated against women,'' Advani said. Lavishing praises on Kerala for its national beauty, literacy and divinity, he lamented that the state lagged behind when it came to progress. Its GDP growth rate was lesser than the national average, agricultural yield had stagnated and its rate of unemployment was three times the national average, he added.

''Kerala has become a prisoner of its political ideologies. It has missed opportunities due to a political culture based on negativism,'' he said, adding that the BJP would challenge this ''culture''.

He said if Kerala reposed its faith in Vajpayee's leadership, then it would not lag behind the rest of India in development.

Bureau Report