M A I N   N E W S

Khurana defends letter to PM
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, April 29 — A day after removal as Vice-President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr Madan Lal Khurana was defiant today saying his letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, questioning the thrust of the government’s economic policies was in tune with the RSS and the BJP’s stand on these issues.

Addressing a press conference, he reacting to party President Kushabhau Thakre’s decision to remove him as party Vice-President last night, Mr Khurana said he had not raised these issues at the behest of anybody and these were in line with the thinking of the RSS and the BJP.

He said he would give fresh notice under Rule 193, in the Lok Sabha for a discussion on the recent hike in prices of fertiliser, kerosene and goods supplied under the PDS, the removal of quantitative restrictions on 1429 items of import in the latest Exim policy and the controversial Sankhya Vahini project in the Telecom sector.

Mr Khurana, whose letter to the Prime Minister on April 21, criticising the government’s economic policies triggered adverse reaction from the party high command, said, “I have no regret in raising these issues as these concern national sovereignty and the common man”.

Reacting to Mr Thakre’s last night decision relieving him from the Vice- President’s post with immediate effect, Mr Khurana said he was “pained that I have not been told about my crimes”.

He said he was also hurt by the manner in which he had been treated by the Prime Minister’s Office and pointed out that he had tried to seek an appointment with Mr Vajpayee from April 1 to 16 to discuss these issues, which were of national interest.

Mr Khurana said he had written another letter to the Prime Minister on April 17 seeking an appointment and this was given the following day. During which the Prime Minister met him for five to seven minutes. The time given was inadequate to discuss in detail these important issues, he added.

On allegations that he had resorted to his action at the behest of former Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, Mr Khurana clarified that he had met Mr Chandra Shekhar on March 7 to enquire about after his leg injury. He said it was during his visit there that a journalist present on the occasion had given him the copy of the US Commerce Secretary’s letter to a senior official in the Indian Commerce Ministry seeking removal of quantitative restrictions.

Mr Khurana said he had shown the copy of the letter to Mr Vajpayee the very next day. He said the Prime Minister had informed him that his Government was bound to take the decision to honour the commitment made by the previous regime and as per the agreement, the quantitative restrictions were to be removed in a phased manner by April 2003.

But a second agreement was arrived at with the USA in which the time-frame for the withdrawal of QRs was advanced by two years, Mr Khurana said.