The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, December 19, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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PM asked to restrain allies
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 18 — Senior Congress leader and Chief Whip of the party in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, today said the government could ill afford to make any provocative statements on the Ayodhya issue and requested the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to also restrain its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners from making disturbing comments.

As the government faced its first trial of strength in the Rajya Sabha with the House having a discussion on a motion expressing disagreement with the statement of the Prime Minister absolving his three Cabinet colleagues — Home Minister L.K. Advani, Human Resource Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Youth Affairs Minister Uma Bharati — chargesheeted by the CBI in the Babri masjid demolition case, the Congress leader said provocative statements could leave the country and society divided.

Moving the motion, which entails voting, Mr Mukherjee said that the Opposition was not interested in “scoring a point or two” because it knew that it could not “unmake” the government because the alliance had the “lung power and the majority” in the Lok Sabha. He said a “clear message” had to go from the House that there could be no compromise on the secular character of country.

He asserted that the views of the Rajya Sabha were not “superfluous” and that the House had made vital contributions in setting up healthy public trends and that the views on the Ayodhya issue should get reflected in terms of voting.

The Congress member sought to censure the Prime Minister on three counts: of pronouncing the three ministers innocent, trying to make light of offences of three leaders in comparison to junior ministers and on his remarks that the construction of the temple was an expression of national sentiment.

Taking exception to the statement that the construction of the temple was an expression of national sentiment, the Congress Chief Whip said the Prime Minister should reveal the basis on which he had made the statement. He sought to know from which part of the country or which of his allies had agreed to such a statement. “Our party rules in nine states. We don’t support it. The Left Front rules in three states and opposes it and so does the RJD in Bihar”.

He said both the TDP government in Andhra Pradesh and the DMK regime in Tamil Nadu had distanced themselves from the temple issue as had Akalis in Punjab and the National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir." So where is the national consensus”, Mr Mukherjee asked.

While pointing out that people believed that he wore a secular mask, he said. “We want this mask to remain.”

The member who was repeatedly sought to be interrupted by BJP members said when the Prime Minister gave a clean chit to anybody, it should be based on facts.

“Mr Vajpayee is in charge of the CBI which has completed investigations and filed charge sheets and through his statements, the Prime Minister has pre-judged the issue,” Mr Mukherjee said.

BJP: PM never held ministers guilty
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 18 — Defending Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s remarks about the three charge-sheeted Union Ministers, the BJP today said that question of giving clean chit to them by Mr Vajpayee did not arise as he did not hold them guilty in the first place.

Participating in the debate on the Opposition-sponsored motion in the Rajya Sabha today, senior BJP leader and Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj refuted allegations that Prime Minister’s remarks amounted to interference in the judicial process.

Reading transcript of answers given by Prime Minister to questions posed by media persons on December 6 last, Mrs Swaraj said the Prime Minister had not given the ministers a cleanchit but had only said what he felt on the issue. The Prime Minister’s opinion, she said, was formed both on the basis of what he saw in the video clippings of the happenings of December 6,1992, and as a result of his conversations with the eye-witnesses.

She said the Prime Minister’s answers to questions, put to him by scribes due to stalemate in Parliament, merely reiterated what he had said on December 17, 1992 in Parliament.

Quoting from Mr Vajpayee’s speech, Mrs Swaraj said he had demanded that Mr Advani be released and given an opportunity to be heard in the House. Mr Vajpayee, she said, had then stated that Mr Advani was protecting the structure.

Accusing the Opposition of deviating from its motion, Mrs Swaraj said instead of the Prime Minister, who was being alleged to have pre-judged the case against the three ministers, the House was pre-judging the issue.

Asserting that Mr Vajpayee had always been consistent in his stand on the accusations against the three Union Ministers, Mrs Swaraj said if he had held them guilty the Prime Minister would not have taken them in his ministerial team.

Referring to High Court order of November last, she said that all proceedings, including the charge sheet and lower court’s order had been stayed.

Congress and TMC members raised objections to references made by Mrs Swaraj from the CBI charge sheet containing statements of some scribes.

Taking exception to the disputed structure being referred to as mosque, Mrs Swaraj said in none of its judgements had the Supreme Court used the word mosque for the disputed structure. “The government’s White Paper has also been careful about this,” she said.

Mrs Swaraj’s references to the passing of Constitution Amendment Bill by the Congress in four days in 1975, following High Court verdict against Mrs Indira Gandhi, was repeatedly interrupted by the Congress members. The Constitution Amendment Bill was passed before the due date of the Supreme Court hearing, she said

Mrs Swaraj had several verbal duels with Congress leader Mr Kapil Sibal who accused the BJP-led government of trying to frame a new lexicon of civil jurisprudence.

Mr Sibal, who began his speech with a poem titled ‘Behind the mask,’ quoted a Supreme Court order saying that the miscreants who had demolished the mosque had no respect for caste, religion or creed.

Maintaining that the Congress was terming the three ministers as guilty, he wondered how the Prime Minister could describe them as innocent.

He questioned the description of the Ayodhya incidents by the BJP as a political offence, saying that under Section 153 A applicable to the case, five years imprisonment and fine can be imposed.

He also objected to reported remarks of the BJP president Mr Bangaru Laxman about launching an agitation if Mr Advani and others are held guilty.

Mr K.V. Saifullah of the TDP and Mr P.N. Siva of the DMK said they were satisfied with the Prime Minister’s assurance that the government would stick to the NDA agenda.