DECCAN HERALD Monday, April 15, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vajpayee ready to prove strength From=20Devika Sequeira DH News Service PANAJI, April 14 The Telugu Desam Party's threat of withdrawal of support to the NDA government cast a worrisome shadow over the concluding session of the Bharatiya Janata Party's three-day national executive here, forcing its early conclusion and a quick departure to Delhi by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and some senior members of his Cabinet. Sources in the BJP said that Mr Vajpayee left for Delhi earlier than scheduled, accompanied by Home Minister L K Advani, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie. They said the prime minister spoke at length to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu from the Raj Bhavan here before taking his flight out. After the TDP's stinging censure on Saturday of the BJP decision to allow Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to keep his job and go for an early election, the BJP began to shore up its defences and look to alternatives t= o face yet another crisis from its coalition partners. Sources here said they were in touch with other parties like the Bahujan Samaj party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and also Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha. But the party maintained here that there was "no danger to the government", and the prime minister made it categorically clear that he could prove his strength if driven to the point. "We will prove our strength if need be," Mr Vajpayee said here, after being asked if his government could survive if the TDP decided to pull out. And Party President K Jana Krishnamurthy said, similarly, that the BJP would accept whatever decision the TDP takes today. The BJP also remained firm all through that it would not budge on its backing Mr Modi. "No question of going back on it," a senior minister said, while Mr Krishnamurthy dismissed it as a closed chapter "disposed off on th= e first day itself". Another BJP leader told this newspaper that the decision to dissolve the Gujarat House had been taken three days ahead of the BJP national executive that began here on Friday, and Law Minister Arun Jaitley had flown to Gujarat mainly to discuss the legal angle with Mr Modi. With 28 MP's, Mr Naidu's TDP, though not part of the government, forms the largest non-BJP constituent of the NDA alliance which has a majority of 315 in the Lok Sabha. The Trinamul Congress, which has also been asking for Mr Modi's dismissal has 9 members. "If the TDP decides to go, we still have a comfortable majority of 287," a BJP leader pointed out. The BJP itself has 182 members in the Lower House. Though some analysts here argued that a TDP pullout would mean a loss of credibility for the BJP, the more hardline elements within the party were making it clear it was time to discard the "secular charade" and go fullscale with the party's Hindutva agenda. One of them told this newspaper, "Now is the time for the party to harness Modi's popularity in Gujarat and test its fallout in four or five other states". He said Modi was confident of getting a three-fourth majority. "No Muslim will dare come out to vote," he said. In fact the tenor of the BJP national executive here =97 which started off = on the dramatic note of Mr Modi's farcical resignation offer and the party's rejection of it =97 was one of a hardening of the ideological stance. It be= gan with Mr Vajpayee's hard-hitting public speech blaming Muslims for causing disharmony the world over. The tone was reinforced by Mr Advani's statement that the BJP need not be "apologetic about the party's ideological moorings". Such arguments, and the ruling party's justification of the Gujarat violenc= e as a natural corollary to Godhra and its use, as the TDP says, of an "election to achieve blatantly narrow communal ends", left the impression that the BJP was preparing to revive the saffron card if forced to a mid-term election. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- =A9 Copyright, 1999 The Printers (Mysore)Ltd. [E-mail to Editor] [Main Page..Text Version] [Main Page..Graphic Version] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
