Vajpayee seeks consensus on POTO

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 16. Stressing that the need of the hour was to produce ``a robust, practical consensus'' between the Centre and the States, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, sought to strike a note of reconciliation on the proposed controversial law against terrorism. Inaugurating the seventh meeting of the Inter-State Council, Mr. Vajpayee told the Chief Ministers that there was a ``need to strengthen the States without weakening the Centre.''

Instead of adopting the cantankerous tone taken by some of his Ministerial colleagues on the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO), the Prime Minister merely pleaded with the Chief Ministers to have an open mind when they gather again tomorrow for the Chief Ministers' Conference on Internal Security. However, he did stress the need ``for an enabling legislative framework'' that would help the country meet the threat of terrorism in all its new manifestations.

For most of the time, Mr. Vajpayee's accent was on underlining the essence of ``our cooperative federalism,'' despite the fact that a majority of the States are being run by non-NDA parties. In an effort to underscore what has come to be known as ``the Vajpayee approach,'' he noted: ``for myself, I have never encountered any difficulty in interacting with the Chief Ministers who belong to parties other than those represented in the National Democratic Alliance.''

Acknowledging this ``unprecedented degree of political pluralism in the country,'' he reaffirmed the basic Constitutional position: a ``prosperous, progressive, self- confident and united India'' can only be one in which a ``strong Centre'' co-existed happily with ``strong States.'' This vision, according to Mr. Vajpayee, ``precludes any notion of confrontation between the Centre and the States, or between the States.'' And the differences, if any, were to be sorted out democratically by ``reliable institutions,'' of which the Inter- State Council was one.

As Mr. Vajpayee saw it, there were two major areas of concern before the nation which required a degree of understanding and consensus between the Centre and the States. One was internal security (which would be dealt at length in tomorrow's conference) and the other was ``development'' related issues, including fiscal self-reliance.

The Prime Minister served notice on the Chief Ministers that they could no longer expect the Centre to provide funds endlessly to cope with the States' financial profligacy. For one reason, this approach did not promote ``responsible management of the State finances''; and, for another, the Centre no longer had the surplus funds to keep on underwriting financial mismanagement.

He also impressed upon the Chief Ministers to ``take concrete steps to bring about decentralisation of financial and administrative powers right up to the grassroots level'' in conformity with the spirit of the 73rd and the 74th Constitutional amendments.

The thrust of Mr. Vajpayee's inaugural remarks was to preclude any signs of partisan stand-off between the Centre and the States. To that extent he succeeded in setting the tone of the Council meeting which was attended by the Union Ministers for Home, Defence, Law and Human Resource Development, and the Chief Ministers of most of the States and the Union Territories of Delhi and Pondicherry and Administrators of other Union Territories.

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