No need to go on defensive, Amit Shah tells party leaders

At a time when demonetization overshadowed the debate inside and outside Parliament, BJP chief Amit Shah is understood to have cautioned his party against going on the defensive or allowing political opponents to set the agenda.

In a meeting with leaders of various departments of his party recently, Shah, according to sources, asked the party to go on the offensive and flaunt the Modi regime’s achievements such as OROP, Jan Dhan yojna and the fight against corruption through demonetization. 

He said the BJP should be setting the agenda while expressing concern that “despite all the work done by the government”, it was the rivals who were managing to do that, the sources said.

He is believed to have said that the BJP had a resounding majority in Lok Sabha, an ideology and a strong organisation while Congress, with just 45 MPs in the Lower House at present, had none of these. Despite that, the Congress had managed to stay in power for decades, he said.

The government-Opposition face-off over a debate on demonetization in Parliament had stalled the Winter Session, which was mid-way when Shah held the meeting. He, along with General Secretary (Organisation) Ram Lal, was taking stock of the progress made by the 19 departments he had announced around a year ago.

After the assembly elections in UP, Uttarakhand and Punjab early in 2017, Shah and Ram Lal are likely to spend three days in every state to take stock of the functioning of the various departments, the sources said. 
Shah has been emphasising on strengthening the organisation,as part of a long-term political strategy.  He said with some election or the other every year, the party should be battle-ready to face them.

Shah told the media department to ensure positive coverage by generating a debate on burning issues. He asked how many editors or senior journalists it had interacted with after government took major steps like OROP. He said literature, data and fact sheets should be prepared so that the media is kept informed, according to the sources.

Turning to the legal cell, he said despite several corruption cases surfacing in Congress-ruled Karnataka, it had not filed any PIL, according to sources. He said the members should find out what was happening on the ground and accordingly respond.

The party president, who had been monitoring the functioning of the various party departments and getting regular feedback, however, said the intention of the exercise was not to criticise anybody.