Cong. boycotts all-party meet, forces Govt. clarification

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 14. The decision by an angry Congress to stay away from an all-party meeting called by the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, here this evening in a bid to ensure the smooth functioning of Parliament prompted the Prime Minister to declare that ``no CBI inquiry had been ordered'' against the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi.

The issue of the CBI being used as a ``partisan'' instrument to order a ``witch-hunt'' against Ms. Gandhi on ``baseless charges'' made by Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party president, that provoked the Congress to announce its boycott of the meeting two hours before it was scheduled to begin.

This set off a flurry of activity, with Mr. Vajpayee hurriedly calling a meeting of top BJP leaders and Mr. George Fernandes, National Democratic Alliance convener, an hour ahead of the all- party meeting. It was here that the strategy was discussed to tackle the Congress boycott. Later, Mr. V. K. Malhotra, BJP spokesperson, confirmed that it was decided that the Prime Minister would declare that no CBI inquiry had been ordered against Ms. Gandhi.

The Government's statement was full of contradictions. Mr. O. Rajgopal, who briefed reporters on the all-party meeting, said the Prime Minister had passed on the allegations made by Dr. Swamy to the Ministry of Personnel (which has the CBI under it) in a ``routine manner'' but ``no CBI inquiry had been ordered.'' He also said ``the Prime Minister had no knowledge of it.'' However, later a Government spokesperson said the Prime Minister did not deny knowledge of it, but the allegations were passed on to the CBI in a ``routine manner''.

To make matters more complicated, Mr. Malhotra told reporters that ``if some allegations were found to be true in the preliminary inquiry by the CBI, the BJP would be opposed to no inquiry being ordered.'' The Congress could not use this as a tool to bargain the smooth conduct of Parliament, he said.

Besides the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Trinamool Congress also stayed away. Earlier, the RJD's Mr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had said his party would not attend the meeting as the Government had failed to take any concrete action after the Tehelka exposure of corruption in defence deals.

Corruption main issue

It seems that the other Opposition parties, the Left and the Samajwadi Party, as well as the allies and supporting parties, including the Telugu Desam Party, insisted that corruption as exposed by the Tehelka tapes was an issue that needed to be discussed. The TDP also mentioned the stock market scam, farmers' suicides, and other pressing issues that the Government should not run away from.

The CPI(M) represented by Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, and the SP by Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, insisted that the Opposition would raise issues of concern to the people, but also made it clear that the Opposition had never wanted to stall Parliament. It was pointed out that the Government had treated the resignations that followed the Tehelka scandal as ``routine,'' and the Opposition was not consulted on the judicial inquiry into the episode. The Opposition parties blamed the Government for the paralysis of Parliament witnessed during the last weeks of the earlier part of the Budget session.

The Government said discussions on issues such as the stock market scandal, matters arising out of the World Trade Organisation agreement and farmers' problems could be decided later in consultation with the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha chairman. It was emphasised that only 16 working days were now available in the second part of the budget session and the Railway and general budgets had to be passed. This was a ``constitutional obligation''.

Meeting on Monday

Ruling party members admitted that without the Congress the meeting had somewhat lost its importance, and as if to snatch the initiative, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. G. M. C. Balayogi, too announced that he would calling a meeting of party leaders on Monday morning, ahead of the start of the session.

The pace of events today were virtually dictated by the Congress. Senior party leaders, Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mr Madhavrao Scindia, had announced ahead of the all-party meeting that the Government had vitiated the atmosphere by initiating an inquiry on baseless charges. While the Congress had always welcomed the attempt to forge a national consensus on important issues, ``it was impossible for the Congress to cooperate with the government'', which had chosen to refer to the CBI for investigating Dr. Swamy's baseless charges. The Government's action was nothing but a witch-hunt and an attempt to silence the Opposition.

The Government had been trying to divert the people's attention from its own misdeeds involving grave acts of omission and commission relating to ``vital areas of national security as revealed in the Tehelka tapes.''

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