M A I N   N E W S

PM’s remarks on Vajpayee angers BJP
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 14
The Bharatiya Janata Party today took strong exception to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks in New York on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and accused him of breaking the tradition of not discussing domestic politics on foreign land.

In a statement, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh described Dr Singh’s remarks as “unfortunate” saying “ all established conventions, mutual regards and due courtesy demand that domestic politics is not made a subject of discussion by our Prime Minister when visiting abroad”.

The former External Affairs Minister said the country awaited elaboration of issues discussed by the Prime Minister with US President George W Bush, in particular details of Iran-India pipeline, UN reforms or the domestic opposition to President Bush in the Senate, on the issue of nuclear cooperation with India.

BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Dr Singh was creating a “new tradition” in Indian polity which was “dangerous” for the country.

“It has been a healthy tradition of this country that whenever a Prime Minister or any other senior leader visits a foreign country, he or she does not discuss internal politics of India,” Mr Naqvi said sharply reacting to the Prime Minister’s remark that Mr Vajpayee was critical of the nuclear Indo-US agreement.

At their meeting in New York today, US President George W. Bush told Dr Singh that he remained fully committed to the nuclear pact between the two countries and hoped that he would obtain Congressional approval for it.

In response, Dr Singh said although he had his Parliament’s backing, he was surprised that Mr Vajpayee had been sharply critical of it.

Remarks uncalled for: Left

New Delhi, September 14
The CPI today took umbrage to the Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh’s statement, highlighting the criticism by the BJP leader, Mr Atal Bihar Vajpayee on the nuclear issue. “Who said what or did not say in Parliament or outside it, on all these issues why should the Prime Minister say anything (to President Bush),” the CPI General Secretary, Mr A B Bardhan said. — TNS

Cong on backfoot
Anita Katyal
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 14
The Congress tied itself in knots today as it made a valiant, but unsuccessful, attempt to fend off criticism about reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had broken an unwritten rule by referring to domestic differences at an international meeting.

The Prime Minister was quoted by his media adviser Sanjay Baru in New York that Dr Singh had told US President George Bush that he was surprised at his predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee’s criticism of the Indo-US nuclear deal though it has been supported by the Indian Parliament.

Predictably, this set off a political storm in the Capital with the Congress being pushed on the defensive when it found that the BJP’s attack against the Prime Minister was being backed by the CPI.

While Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee was on the offensive, saying the Prime Minister’s remarks were “absolutely correct”, Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan virtually ran out of explanations at the daily press briefing. She started off by slamming the BJP for raking up non-issues in an attempt to deflect attention from its internal differences.

“The Prime Minister has not said anything wrong. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s stand on the Indo-US nuclear pact is well-known...it is no secret or mystery to anybody,” she said.

At the same time, Mrs Natarajan clarified that foreign secretary Shyam Saran had released the transcript of the meeting between Mr Bush and Dr Singh and it did not contain the remark attributed to the Prime Minister.

When her attention was drawn to the fact that the Prime Minister’s media adviser had quoted Dr Singh, Mrs Natarajan maintained the party was not privy to the details of a private conversation between the two leaders. They did not know in what context these remarks were made since they had not been able to touch base with Dr Baru to get the correct picture, she reasoned. As far as the Congress is concerned, she said ,it always made it a point not to raise domestic issues at international fora.