The Hindu : Govt. won't allow Advani's yatra to be disrupted: Kharge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 16, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Govt. won't allow Advani's yatra to be disrupted: Kharge

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA, MARCH 15. The Home Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, today said the State Government would take all measures to ensure that the `Bharat Uday Yatra' of the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, went on smoothly when it re-entered Karnataka from Maharashtra on Tuesday at Chandikapur village in Basavakalyan taluk of Bidar District.

He was referring to the threat held out by the Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samiti (HKHS) to block the yatra in protest against what it termed the failure of the Union Government to concede the long-pending demand of the Hyderabad Karnataka region for amending Article 371 of the Constitution to provide special reservation for the people of the backward region in jobs and employment. Mr. Kharge said that the Bidar district administration and the police would take steps to ensure that the yatra was not disrupted.

While reiterating the State Government's demand for amending Article 371, Mr. Kharge said the Government had done everything possible to persuade the Union Government to concede the demand but, unfortunately, the Centre had put the issue on hold. He pointed out that the State Government had re-submitted the proposal for the amendment of Article 371 after the Centre rejected the earlier proposal on the grounds that the present situation in Karnataka did not warrant such an amendment. The fresh proposal had neither been rejected nor accepted by the Centre.

On the plea of the HKHS that all the political parties, including the Congress, and the Ministers from the region should join it in preventing Mr. Advani's yatra, Mr. Kharge said Ministers would not join the protest and the Congress also would not support it.

Meanwhile, the president of the HKHS, Vaijnath Patil, has declared that there is no question of withdrawing the agitation, and thousands of HKHS volunteers and activists of political parties would prevent the yatra from entering Hyderabad Karnataka in Bidar district on Tuesday.

He said the blame for the delay in conceding the demand of the people of the region for the amendment of Article 371 lay with Mr. Advani and the Union Home Ministry. He also pointed out that Mr. Advani had gone back on his promise during his visit to Gulbarga in September 2002 that the Centre would clear the proposal for the amendment of Article 371 as soon as the State Government submitted it.

Referring to the attempt made by the local unit of the BJP to give a political colour to the agitation and shift the blame for the delay on to the State Government, which had included other backward areas in the proposal instead of limiting it to the Hyderabad Karnataka region, Mr. Patil said that the neither the Centre nor Mr. Advani had given any reason for the delay and the local BJP leaders were trying to justify the inaction of their party leaders.

He said the issue had been hanging fire for the past 25 years. The local BJP leaders should join hands with the HKHS in registering their protest and bring pressure on the Union Government to clear the proposal, he added.

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