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BJP to follow Japanese style on consensus

Going beyond a common minimum programme for a coalition government, the Bharatiya Janata Party plans to seek a national consensus between political parties, industry, business, and labour on the several issues confronting the country today.

To make this a reality, the BJP is looking forward to the system of governance followed in Japan. The party is especially impressed at the way in which the Japanese government works hand-in-hand with industry and business, keeping the economic interests of the people at large in mind.

"A partisan approach towards such issues will not serve the country's interest," BJP president L K Advani told reporters in Goa last week.

If elected to power, he said his party is also planning to tell the National Law Commission to prepare a draft common civil code, after including into it ingredients of all personal laws which are positive, progressive, modern, and which strengthen family values and ensure gender justice.

"Instead of simply talking about it, the BJP would get the draft of the common civil code prepared, which would be thrown open for a national debate. We would try and have a national consensus on this issue too," he says.

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