NDA top brass to 'clear the air' on tehelka expose

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MARCH 28. The Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, will lead the NDA's nationwide campaign to fight the Congress ``conspiracy ''against his Government by addressing public meetings in each of the four regions, including Bangalore in the South on April 5.

Other top NDA leaders like Mr. L. K. Advani and George Fernandes will address rallies Hyderabad (on April 4) and other State capitals. About 50 lower rung leaders have been identified to take the `war' to the Congress camp by participating in public meetings in the districts.

Addressing a news conference here on Wednesday, the BJP leader, Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu, said the Government had tried to be reasonable by accepting the resignations of Mr. Bangaru Laxman and the Samata Party leader, Ms. Jaya Jaitley. Even the Defence Minister offered to step down and face an enquiry when the Opposition raised a hue and cry though no allegation was made directly against him.

Now the Congress wanted the Prime Minister to quit. To achieve this objective, Ms. Sonia Gandhi had branded Mr. Vajpayee traitor, Ms. Ambika Soni had accused the Government of diverting earthquake relief material from Gujarat while the former Naval Chief, Vishnu Bhagwat, had alleged that Dawood Ibrahim had funded Mr. Advani's rath yatra.

Mr. Naidu said it was now evident that Congressmen were frustrated that a non-Congress Government was ruling the country for three years without its image getting tarnished. Hence, it had launched a vilification campaign targeting Mr. Vajpayee.

The Union Minister said the Opposition was making logic stand on its head by expressing dissatisfaction over the resignations and the enquiry by a retired Supreme Court Judge. When the Congress was in power earlier, it was the Opposition that used to demand resignations and judicial inquiries and the Government used to reject them. Neither Rajiv Gandhi nor Mr. P. V. Narasimha Rao resigned when their names figured in the Bofors and JMM scams respectively.

The AICC session at Bangalore had made it clear that the Congress was in a hurry to form an alternative Government without possessing the moral authority nor the numbers in Parliament. But, the fact was that people wanted Mr. Vajpayee to continue as shown in opinion polls.

Mr. Naidu launched a veiled attack on Tehelka.com saying it was not the gospel and Mr. Mathew Samuel, who did the sting operation for the portal, was reported by a daily to have been declared an absconder in Kerala. He was an activist of the Congress-led Kerala Students Union and had cases pending against him.

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