http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/080101/detNAT03.asp
HT Correspondent
(New Delhi, January 7)

NO ONE really knows where the inspiration came from. But in the year earmarked for empowering women, the BJP decided to celebrate Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's birth anniversary by instructing each of its local committees to adopt a girl child from the poorest family in the area and provide her with maximum education. The exercise would not be time-bound.

Besides adopting a girl child, the party's campaign for the next few months includes observing Sant Ramdas and Ambedkar Jayantis (February 8 and April 14 respectively) as "social harmony days". The occasion would be used to carry the message of welfare schemes to the people.

Again, the BJP's Foundation Day on April 6 and the conclusion of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's birth centenary celebrations on July 6 would be used to educate workers about the party's evolution and carry the message of national unity, security and integration.

These were among the programmes chalked out as a follow-up to the two-day National Executive meeting, which concluded on Friday. The next meeting is expected in April to enable the party to fine-tune its strategy for the assembly elections in four states and one Union Territory.

Meanwhile, the National Executive's Resolution on the Situation in North-Eastern states, released today, expressed concern over the alarming situation there.

It outlined a series of measures for the Government to act upon. It called for a special commission to unearth links between some politicians and separatist/banned organisations and punishment of the guilty. It asked the Government to give multi-purpose identity cards for citizens in the border areas, scrap of the Illegal Migrants Detention Act, thwart the current ISI-ULFA conspiracy to divide society and drive out non-locals from the area, rehabilitate Riyang refugees who have been driven out of Mizoram and check SULFA activities.