Admission of guilt, says Cong.; NDA to stand by PM

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 31. The National Democratic Alliance leaders who are meeting here tomorrow are likely to express full faith in the leadership of the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, even as a determined Opposition described his offer to resign as a ``gimmick'' to divert attention from the Unit Trust of India (UTI) scandal. It has demanded a statement in Parliament on the charges levelled against the Prime Minister's Office in the UTI fiasco.

The expression of solidarity that began today immediately after news that Mr. Vajpayee had threatened to resign - telephone calls from the Shiv Sena chief, Mr. Bal Thackeray, and the Telugu Desam Party leader, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, and courtesy visits to express full support to the Prime Minister - is expected to be formalised through a resolution to be adopted by the NDA tomorrow.

However, the Opposition was not amused. The Congress came down sharply on the ``hypocritical offer to resign and the instant willingness to withdraw it''. The Party spokesperson, Mr. Jaipal Reddy, described it as ``high drama and low comedy,'' enacted to ``deliberately avoid a probe into the PMO's role in the UTI investments''. The party saw it as an ``admission of guilt''. The facts that had already surfaced were ``too startling to be sidetracked by the resignation drama''.

Move to `silence' allies

The CPI(M) leader, Mr. Somnath Chatterji, charged that the resignation move was meant to ``silence NDA partners'' by dangling the ``threat of elections'' on a matter that called for the ``immediate resignation of the Finance Minister''.

The party's politburo member, Mr. Sitaram Yechury, said in Ranchi that the offer only ``reaffirmed the tendency to protect the guilty in the UTI scam''.

The BJP's view was ``there was no crisis'' facing the Government. Mr. Vajpayee had been ``persuaded'' to give up the idea of resigning. The Rural Development Minister, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu, stated categorically that the entire BJP and the NDA leadership was solidly behind the Prime Minister.

The BJP leaders were not willing to concede that many factors may have led to the resignation threat - the earlier Sangh Parivar allegations against the PMO, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch's attack on the Government's economic policies described by them as a ``sellout to multinationals'', the tough posture adopted by the BJP's national executive on the Agra summit fiasco and the barbs from the party against the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, which were interpreted by some as an indirect attack on Mr. Vajpayee, and the straight talk by party president, Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi, against using Cabinet berths as lollipops.

Instead, the suggestion by the Shiv Sena MP, Mr. Sanjay Nirupam, in the Rajya Sabha on Monday that the PMO may have been involved in the UTI scandal was seen as the main factor that led to Mr. Vajpayee's move.

The threat had the desired effect. Mr. Thackeray, presumably told Mr. Vajpayee that the views of Mr. Nirupam were his own. This was re-affirmed by Shiv Sena's Cabinet Minister, Mr. Manohar Joshi, who met the Prime Minister to smoothen his ruffled feathers. The TDP leader, Mr. Yerran Naidu, met Mr. Vajpayee to explain that his party had never given any trouble to the NDA - it had only raised economic issues in the interest of the people.

And there were many BJP Ministers and leaders who met the Prime Minister to declare full support. Mr. L.K. Advani, Mr. Pramod Mahajan and Mr. Jaswant Singh were among those who ``successfully persuaded'' Mr. Vajpayee to give up the idea of resigning.

Not warranted: TDP

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