Govt can survive sans Jaya: Naidu

CHENNAI, Aug 25 (UNI) — Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary M. Venkaiah Naidu today indicated that the Vajpayee government would survive even without the AIADMK’s support.

Talking to reporters here, Mr Naidu claimed that "more and more people" (MPs) were offering support to the BJP-led government as they did not want fresh elections. However, he declined to elaborate.

Mr Naidu declined to confirm or deny when asked whether AIADMK supremo Ms Jayalalitha had sent feelers to the BJP leadership during its national executive meeting agreeing to adopt a soft approach towards the government.

Asked about the AIADMK-led front authorising Ms Jayalalitha to take an appropriate decision at an appropriate time on the question of continued support to the government, Mr Naidu said Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress President Vazhapadi K. Ramamurthy, who announced the Front’s decision, had himself said there was no question of withdrawing support to the government. The PMK and the MDMK had also expressed similar sentiments, he added.

Moreover, AIADMK presidium Chairman V.R. Nedunchezhiyan had said at a meeting that his party would continue to support the government, though it had reserved its right to raise public issues, he pointed out.

Mr Naidu said Congress President Sonia Gandhi had been giving "the so-called green signals" to other Opposition parties to bring down the Vajpayee government in the past two months. Nothing, however, had happened.

Asked about Ms Jayalalitha’s allegation that hefty bribes had been received by someone close to the Prime Minister for the transfer of Enforcement Directorate chief M.K. Bezbaruah, Mr Naidu said the controversy was over as she was no more raising the allegation.

On Ms Jayalalitha’s charge that the Cauvery accord fashioned by the Prime Minister was a fraud on farmers of Tamil Nadu, he said the statement should be viewed in the context of local compulsions (the AIADMK vs the DMK).

On the controversy relating to the mention of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s name in the Action Taken Report on the Jain Commission’s final report, Mr Naidu said it was only a "typographical error". The government had clarified that the reference dealing with Mr Karunanidhi in the ATR would continue. There was no politics or no deal in it as speculated in the media, he added.

Investigation relating to the Bofors gun deal appears to have reached a crucial stage.

"You will hear more about it in the next few days", Mr Naidu told reporters here.

He said people accused in the case and now out of the country were expected to be brought back. They were expected to reveal the identity of the real beneficiaries of the deal, he said, but did not elaborate.

Mr Naidu was replying to a query about "deafening silence" over the investigation of the Bofors case after the BJP-led government came to power.

It was not clear whether the Malaysian government has agreed to the extradition of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi who has been charged with receiving kick-backs in the deal.

Transfer of Bezbaruah routine: govt

NEW DELHI, Aug 25 (PTI) — The government today filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying transfer of Enforcement Director M.K. Bezbaruah was done in a routine manner and there was nothing arbitrary about it.

The affidavit said the request from Bezbaruah’s parent cadre Delhi had been received by the government on August 11 seeking his services and all formalities were completed before his transfer to the Delhi Government as Transport Commissioner was ordered on August 13.

The government said it had complied with the Supreme Court directive in the Jain hawala case, making the tenure of the Enforcement Director of a minimum of two years, and added Bezbaruah was one of the longest-serving Enforcement Directors with a tenure of over three years.

A three-judge Bench headed by Mr Justice S.P. Bharucha, while hearing the over Rs 1,000-crore Indian Bank scam case, made it clear that even if the transfer of Bezbaruah took effect on or before September 8, the next date of hearing. "It shall be subject to further orders of this court".