NEW DELHI: There are few takers for the "Shining India" election campaign of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and even some its close allies seem to have problems with what they consider a slick, empty theme.

"Who is shining? Only the brokers, agents and contractors who have benefited from the government and hope to benefit again," Govindacharya, one of the chief ideologues of the BJP and the party's former general secretary, told IPS in an interview.

Even more embarrassing for the ruling party, a document released on Monday by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) or Self-reliance Protection Forum, an arm of the BJP, accused the government of building "mystique around the concept of development".

"We want the government to explain clearly who are the beneficiaries of this so-called 'shining India'," said Murlidhar Rao, convenor of the SJM that acts closely with the powerful Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his top cabinet colleagues are members.

The RSS, known best for its military-style drills, has in the past expressed discomfort with the BJP's economic reforms programme, one that includes inviting greater foreign participation and the privatization of the country's dominant public sector.

Understandably, more trenchant criticism of the "Shining India" campaign has come from political parties such as the main opposition Congress party and the Marxist Communist Party of India (CPI-M), which are ranged against the BJP in the general elections staggered between April 24 and May 10.

The elections were not due until later in the year but, buoyed by an exceptionally good monsoon that is beneficial for the country's mainly agricultural economy and by foreign exchange reserves exceeding a hundred billion US dollars, the BJP decided to cash in on a perceived "feel good factor".

Critics have warned that the unprecedented rise in foreign exchange reserves was ephemeral and composed largely of investment flows hunting for arbitrage opportunities in the stock market.

Vajpayee's advisers were also keen to go to polls before the euphoria created by foreign policy successes in January - through engaging Pakistan diplomatically - faded away.

Islamabad responded positively to Vajpayee's overtures. Sitaram Yechuri, politburo member of the CPI-M, challenged the notion of a "Shining India" as little more than the creation of slick public relations agencies that have little contact with actual realities.

"The reality," said Yechuri, "is that the production of foodgrains has been steadily going down in this country and people are going hungry because they cannot access the vast surpluses that are spilling out of the granaries."

According to Congress party leader and former finance minister, Pranab Mukerjee, the biggest failure of the BJP government has been its inability to stem the rising tide of unemployment. "The fact is that the unemployment rate grew from 5.99 per cent in 1994 to 7.32 per cent in 2000." - Dawn/The Inter Press News Service.