Save Bihar, appeals BJP
Call to review anti-defection law
From Satish Misra
Tribune News Service

JAIPUR, Aug 23 — The three-day national executive committee meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party today ended with an appeal to its government to take "appropriate action" to save Bihar "before it slips over the edge".

Giving a call for a review of the provisions of the anti-defection law, the four-page political resolution, adopted today on the concluding day, said the situation in Bihar continued to slip from bad to worse with each passing day. "We view the developments in Bihar with concern and appeal to the Union government to take appropriate action to save the state before it slips over the edge", the resolution said.

In another significant development, the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, who addressed the media after the meeting, disclosed that a decision has been taken to tackle the issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by giving them a different identity cards which would be work permits for all practical purposes. The process of giving identity cards to all citizens would begin soon, Mr Advani said adding that a "scheme is being worked out".

The party extended a helping hand to the beleaguered Vajpayee government by launching a scathing attack on the Opposition parties. Not only that the party president, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, had attacked the opposition parties in his inaugural address, the political resolution deplored the "double- speak, double- standards, double-think and crass opportunism of the Congress".

Firmly believing in the dictum of aggression being the best policy of defence, the national executive meeting said: "On the one hand, the nationalist forces have aligned with the BJP, on the other, the newly formed casteist and communal Rashtriya Lok Tantrik Morcha, the remains of the United Front and the Left front, have dropped all pretensions of commitment to democratic and progressive politics and are rallying behind dynastic rule."

Conscious of a potent political threat to the BJP-led coalition politics emerging from the Congress under Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the resolution and the three-day deliberations of the meeting though attacked the Opposition parties, particularly the Congress.

"Unable to resist the temptation of power at any cost and having failed to engage themselves in constructive criticism of the BJP-led government as any responsible opposition party should,these parties are now ganging up to try and subvert the people’s mandate. What we are witnessing is yet another forging of an unholy alliance of unscrupulous and corrupt politicians and their non-existent parties. What is of particular concern is their agenda to mobilise support from a rank communal and casteist platform", the resolution said.

Appealing to the people to rebuff these disruptive forces for ensuring that the polity was not disturbed, the resolution regretted that the Congress has chosen to go along with these disruptive forces.

"Given the fact that the Congress, apart from the BJP, is the country’s only other nationalist and the second largest party in the Lok Sabha, it was expected that it would play the role of a responsible Opposition. That would have been in keeping with the 1998 mandate. The people desired that the Congress should sit in the opposition benches and the party should honour the people’s verdict. The Congress would do well to recall that for more than four decades when we were in opposition, we always placed the nation’s interest above them that of our party’s", the resolution stressed.

"Instead, the Congress is showing signs of impatience with its voter- ordained role and has not hesitated to throw in its lot with the other losers and wreckers of 1998. What is particularly amusing is that the Congress has had no compunction about seeking a common cause with the Left,especially the CPM despite the fact that till recently the latter lost no occasion to berate and denounce the former", the resolution said.

Accusing the Congress of duplicity, the resolution said that the Congress, suffering from political myopia, has decided to pursue a self-defeating and obstructionist course in an attempt to overcome its shortcomings. "The party would do well to remember that there are no short cuts in politics", the resolution said.

Later, addressing the media, Mr Advani said the Home Ministry, the state government and the Defence Ministry have been working in perfect unison cooperating fully to ensure that the proxy war launched by Pakistan was defeated.

The Home Minister said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir was improving but the militancy has not been completely "curbed". He said the militants have received a series of setbacks. One encouraging sign was that the ISI has not been succeeded in recruiting locals as its agents. The ISI was operating through foreign mercenaries, he said.

On massacres of minorities in Jammu and Kashmir and recently in Himachal Pradesh, Mr Advani said they were conducted to provoke communal clashes but they have not succeeded as it has only strengthened their resolve to fight the terrorists from across the border. The village defence committees are being strengthened by imparting them better training and equipping them with modern arms.

Mr Advani explained at length the problem of cross-border terrorism. He said because of Pakistan’s overt and covert support to terrorists operating in India the issue of internal and external security had got intertwined.

On the Bofors issue, Mr Advani said it would take some more time to come to any final conclusion as investigations were still going on. Asked when the Central government would take action against the Rabri Devi government in Bihar, Mr Advani evaded a direct reply saying that "it was a suggestion for action".

AIADMK support "to continue"

CHENNAI, Aug 23 (PTI) — A senior AIADMK leader has said the party's support to the BJP-led government will continue to ensure that the Vajpayee regime lasts its full term, but declared that it will continue to be vocal about its demands, including dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu.

Speaking at public meeting here last night, AIADMK presidium chairman V.R. Nedunchezhiyan said "giving our support is one thing, raising issues is another."

However, just because the party was committed to continuing its support, it should not be seen as an enslaved organisation, the former Tamil Nadu Finance Minister and the AIADMK's second-in-command said.

Claiming that there were a '101 reasons' for sacking the M. Karunanidhi government in TN including the remarks of the Jain Commission in its final report on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination conspiracy, Nedunchezhiyan said the AIADMK would not rest till the DMK regime was ousted.

RLM seeks resignation of Vajpayee, Advani

NEW DELHI, Aug 23 (PTI) — Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha (RLM) leaders today came down heavily on the Vajpayee Government for CBI raids on the Bihar Chief Minister's residence at Patna and demanded immediate resignation of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister for "insulting" the state.

The leaders later went to Rashtrapati Bhavan to meet President K.R. Narayanan and said the misuse of power in ordering the raids was "dangerous for democracy". They demanded that Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and Mr L.K. Advani should resign immediately for misusing their powers in ordering the CBI raids.

After an emergency meeting that condemned the raids, RLM president Mulayam Singh Yadav told reporters that it was for the first time that a Chief Minister's residence was raided by the CBI. "It is an insult to the state and particularly an insult to women" he remarked.

Mr Yadav said the entire incident smacked of political vendetta as the BJP was getting "increasingly nervous" over the "growing popularity" of the morcha.

He said since no incriminating documents were recovered during the raid on the residence of RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav in the fresh disproportionate assets case, both the Prime Minister and the Home Minister should own moral responsibility and relinquish office.

Mr Yadav said if the two did not resign, Morcha MPs and MLAs would sit on dharna in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan to press their demand.

The Samajwadi Party president said CBI sleuths virtually confined Chief Minister Rabri Devi in a small room preventing her from attending to important files, particularly those relating to flood relief in the state.

Ms Rabri Devi, who was also present at the briefing said CBI officials confessed to her that the raids were ordered "from the top" and that is why they had come to her residence.

She said she willingly agreed to them and allowed them to search every nook and corner of her bungalow.

When they could not find anything incriminating, they begged apology from her, the Chief Minister said.

"I am an illiterate woman whose residence has been raided. They (Vajpayee and Advani) should be ashamed of themselves for insulting an illiterate woman. The people of the state will never pardon them," she said.

Former Union Minister Buta Singh said the CBI came under the direct control of the Home Ministry and its "misuse for narrow political purposes was an insult to the constitution".

Mr Shanker Singh Vaghela of the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) said the raid was masterminded to appease the Samata Party which had been mounting pressure on the Centre for dismissal of the Bihar government.

The Samajwadi Party President said CBI sleuths virtually confined Chief Minister Rabri Devi in a small room preventing her from attending to important files, particularly those relating to flood relief in the state.

Mrs Rabri Devi, who was also present at the briefing, said the CBI officials confessed to her that the raids were ordered "from the top" and that is why they had come to her residence.

She said she willingly agreed to them and allowed them to search every nook and corner of her bungalow. When they could not find anything incriminating, they begged apology from her, the Chief Minister said.

"I am an illiterate woman whose residence has been raided. They (Vajpayee and Advani) should be ashamed of themselves for insulting an illiterate woman. The people of the state will never pardon them," she said.

Former Union Minister Buta Singh said the CBI came under the direct control of the Home Ministry and its "misuse for narrow political purposes was an insult to the Constitution".

Shanker Singh Vaghela of the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) said the raid was masterminded to appease Samata Party which had been mounting pressure on the centre for dismissal of the Bihar government.