The Hindu : Appeal against High Court order, Swamy urges EC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 26, 2004

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Appeal against High Court order, Swamy urges EC

By Our Special Correspondent

MADURAI, MARCH 25. The Janata Party president, Subramanian Swamy, has appealed to "patriotic functionaries" of the Congress to join his party, floated by Congress stalwarts such as Jayaprakash Narayan and Morarji Desai, in the context of the "confusing scenario" in the State.

Addressing newspersons here today, Dr. Swamy said the Janata Party was a "democratic institution" while the Congress was having a "family hold." Had he been alive, Kamaraj would have become the first president of the Janata Party, he claimed.

Congressmen "upset by the betrayal" in the selection of candidates for the Lok Sabha election in the State, were welcome to join the Janata Party, he added.

Dr. Swamy urged the Election Commission to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Andhra Pradesh High Court order staying the ban on the telecast of election advertisements in the electronic media.

Since private television channels had party affiliation, poll advertisements on television should be banned.

He described the `rath yatra' taken out by the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, as a "normal political stunt" which did not have any impact on the people.

Dr. Swamy claimed that the recent statistics released by the Central Statistical Organisation had "exposed as false" the claims of the Vajpayee Government over "India shining" economically.

The average annual growth rate during 1999-2003 was 5.7 per cent, below the seven per cent growth achieved by the Narasimha Rao Government. The Government's outstanding liabilities had doubled since 1997-98 to Rs. 1,504,000 crores in 2002-03.

The employment growth had come down to one per cent, below the rate of growth of the labour force at 2.5 per cent.

The foreign exchange reserves were fully committed for various contingencies and inflation had accelerated to six per cent from two per cent in 1999.

The rate of investment in the economy had fallen from 27.3 per cent of the GDP in 1996-97 to 25.1 per cent last year.

Industrial production, pegged at 13 per cent in 1996-97, declined to five per cent last year.

In the context of the above statistics, the NDA Government should "stop misleading the public," he said.

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