Thackeray stands by editorial

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, MARCH 25. While sticking to his position that the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, should clean up the PMO, the Shiv Sena chief, Mr. Bal Thackeray, has made it clear that the collapse of the NDA Government was not in the national interest.

``If the image of the Prime Minister is getting dimmed because of the presence of Mr. Brajesh Mishra (Principal Secretary), Mr. N.K. Singh (Officer on Special Duty) and Mr. Ranjan Bhattacharya (Mr. Vajpayee's son-in-law), he will have to get rid of them,'' he told his party mouthpiece, Saamna, in an interview today.

This reassertion comes in the wake of a controversy generated by the Saamna editorial of March 19, which said that the trio must go since their names figured in the Tehelka expose. But soon Mr. Anant Geete, leader of the Shiv Sena in the Lok Sabha, told a press conference in New Delhi that the Sena chief had nothing to do with the editorial.

But in today's interview, Mr. Thackeray said he did not dissociate himself from the editorial. ``The view in the editorial (written by the executive editor of the paper, Mr. Sanjay Raut) was correct but that was not the right moment to express it publicly,'' he said. ``At the same time, however, I do not refute my responsibility since I am the editor.''

In fact, that editorial, he said was against the Congress that had indulged in so many scandals during its long rule and was now raising hue and cry against a supposed scandal, and blamed ``yellow journalism'' for the controversy. ``Their idea was to drive a rift among us (between the BJP and Shiv Sena) but this is impossible.''

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