Fresh row between BJP, TDP on rice procurement

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 21.After their war of words over the Prime Minister's remarks on Ayodhya, the BJP and TDP are engaged in a fresh tussle, this time on rice procurement, with the former taking serious exception to the Minister for Civil Supplies, Dr. N. Janardhan Reddy, painting the Congress (I) and BJP with the same brush.

The BJP today found fault with the Chandrababu Naidu Government for its failure to anticipate rice production and accordingly arrange for godown space to store the arrivals. Had the Government been alive to the impending surplus, the crisis could have been averted. "This is not a sudden calamity", the party said.

This criticism was in response to the TDP Government's stand that the Congress (I) and BJP leaders were indulging in politically motivated attacks against it without contributing anything to relieve farmers from distress. The BJP believes that the TDP Government should prove its sincerity by waiving the five per cent tax on paddy and pass on an amount of Rs 58 per quintal to the farmer instead of cribbing against the Centre.

At a press conference here on Thursday, the BJP spokespersons, Mr. Parakala Prabhakar and Mr. G. Kishen Reddy, said their party had been making constructive suggestions for resolving the crisis to the Chief Minister, the Prime Minister and the Union Food Minister and it was not proper for Dr. Janardhan Reddy to bracket the BJP with the Congress (I). He was apparently unable to distinguish between suggestions and criticism.

The BJP leaders said all political parties, including the Congress (I) and the Left, must stop hurling accusations at one another and cooperate with the Government in helping the former. To a question why BJP MPs from the State did not join the dharna in Parliament, they said the question of staging a protest would arise only if the Centre was unresponsive. The reality was that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) had agreed to procure 55 lakh tonnes of rice during the next six months besides three lakh tonnes of paddy.

Asked to respond to threats by TDP leaders to reconsider their support to the NDA Government on this issue, the BJP leaders said the TDP was backing the BJP-led regime for certain political reasons, but mainly to keep Congress (I) out of power. The BJP also needed its friendship.

The TDP must realise that the understanding was forged on the basis of the common minimum agenda before the elections and not after. The question of reviewing its support would arise before the TDP only if the NDA Government deviated from the common agenda.

Earlier, Mr. Kishen Reddy criticised the TDP Government on another count saying that its population control efforts in Andhra Pradesh had not produced the desired results. The neighbouring State of Karnataka was way ahead of AP in checking the population growth rate, he added.

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