BJP agenda out of the closet: Sonia

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 21. The Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, has said the BJP's ``hidden agenda'' is out of the closet and has been put on public display. Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) here this morning, she said it was proved beyond doubt that the Prime Minister ``is a swayamsewak of 60 years standing, who is committed to the philosophy of the Sangh Parivar''.

After his ``inept handling'' of the Babri Masjid- Ayodhya question, ``the whole country began to wonder whether it was mistaken in thinking of the Prime Minister as the human face of the Sangh Parivar''. She said it was now up to the NDA allies to determine how long a rope they intended giving the BJP leadership.

Ms. Gandhi said the ``effort and determination shown by Congress MPs'' during the winter session had helped to put the plight of farmers and the issue of resignations of three Union Ministers chargesheeted in the Babri demolition case on the nation's agenda. Congratulating her Rajya Sabha colleagues, the Congress president said the success of their motion reflected the national sentiment that the three ministers had no moral right to cling on to the chair. Since it was Mr. Vajpayee who had made them Ministers and who refused to accept the resignations they tendered a year ago, he stood morally responsible in the eyes of the country.

Ms. Gandhi accused the Government of deflecting attention from the question of resignation of Ministers to the larger Ayodhya issue. The Prime Minister's stand would encourage lawless and extremist elements in the Sangh Parivar. Warning the nation against the BJP's communal agenda, she said her party remained steadfast in its commitment, both inside or outside the Government, to a secular India.

Accusing the Government of betraying the cause of the farmers, the Congress president said her party would soon launch an agitation at the block, district and State level.

Attacking the Government's agriculture policy, Ms. Gandhi said essential inputs had been priced beyond the reach of the farmers. Foodgrains were rotting in godowns, yet many families below the povertyline were not getting enough because of the new PDS arrangement. Also the FCI was not lifting the farmers' produce. Mindless imports had ruined both the farmers' and mills manufacturing edible oils. The fault lay not in the WTO agreements but in the ``incompetent handling'' of the tariff issue by this Government''.

Referring to disinvestment, she said there was a world of difference ``between the disinvestment as we conceived it and the opaque, inconsistent and muddled way this Government was going about it''. She referred to the fact that some NDA allies - Shiv Sena, TDP and Trinamool Congress - had supported the Congress' demand for a white paper on disinvestments.

Welcoming the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir, Ms. Gandhi hoped that the Government would have contingency plans in place in case the ceasefire was disrupted. She, however, lambasted the Government for the ongoing violence in the northeast, and urged it to take correctives immediately.

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