The Hindu : Govt. has wrong priorities, says TDP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 16, 2002

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Govt. has wrong priorities, says TDP
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 15. The Telugu Desam Party today continued to express resentment over the manner in which the BJP preferred to act on the Ayodhya issue without consulting its NDA allies.

The TDP leader, C. Ramachandraiah, preferred to restate the party's stand in the Rajya Sabha and said it was unfortunate that the Government had wrong priorities. He warned that the people could not be hoodwinked and that the Government would have to ``pay a price for it''.

Participating in a discussion on the motion of thanks to the President's address, Mr. Ramachandraiah said that it was unfortunate that a controversy had been generated on an issue that has attracted the attention of the nation and the world. ``It is draining our energy on some trivial issues, such as temple, etc. We need more jobs...why should there be turmoil everytime when we are being deprived of two square meals a day ? It is a totally irrelevant issue''. A suggestion by a BJP member that people felt the relevance of the issue, Mr. Ramachandraiah retorted that people were being made to feel in that manner.

Criticising the Government, he said that it was duty- bound to arrive at a consensus before arriving at any decision and wanted it to state why it did not consult its allies before taking a decision that has had a ``tremendous adverse impact''. He said strange things were happening: ``should we beseech a fellow to accept the judgment of the court in the country? Is the Government so poor?...It really pains us''.

He said that while it was often suggested that the Telugu Desam withdraw its support to the NDA, the party was prepared to support it to any extent and suggested the Government do good things for the people and the nation.

The major part of his discussion was centered on the economic downslide and the inability of the Government to achieve the high target of growth rate.

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