The Hindu : Advani claims victory for the Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 08, 2002

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Advani claims victory for the Govt.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 7. The Bharatiya Janata Party today claimed that the Gujarat debate in Parliament was not an embarrassment for it, and the message that had been conveyed was that the Vajpayee Government was strong and stable.

The logic: the Government had won the vote comfortably in the Lok Sabha, and in the Rajya Sabha the motion adopted had been "amended'' to suit the ruling party and therefore it had agreed to support it.

This was the sum and substance of the address by the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, at the parliamentary party meeting of the BJP this morning.

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, attended, but did not say a word, according to the party spokesperson, V. K. Malhotra, who briefed presspersons later.Mr. Advani had dwelt at length on the Gujarat debate in the two Houses of Parliament, claiming victory for the Government.

After having agreed only under persistent Opposition pressure that the Centre had indeed invoked Article 355 of the Constitution in relation to Gujarat, Mr. Advani explained to his partymen that there was nothing unusual in the Centre doing this, and that the Article had been regularly invoked in other cases related to other States, including Tamil Nadu.

While in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition-sponsored motion was comfortably defeated, despite the walkout by the "friendly'' Telugu Desam Party, the exit of the Lok Janshakti and the abstaining by the National Conference, in the Rajya Sabha the resolution was unanimously adopted after being "amended'' in accordance with the wishes of the Treasury benches, Mr. Advani said, Mr. Malhotra recalled later. There was no explanation from Mr. Malhotra on why so much was being made of using or not using Article 355 if it was being used routinely against several States.Neither was there any explanation of the contradictory statements that have been made by the Prime Minister and other senior leaders on the use of Article 355 against the Gujarat Government.

Nor was the party forthcoming on what the wrangling between the ruling parties and the Opposition was about in the Rajya Sabha if the use of Article 355 in Gujarat was obvious and routine.And there was no explanation for the Prime Minister's statement a few days ago that if necessary, Article 355 would be used.

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