Monday, Apr 15, 2002
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By K.V. Prasad
The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, with the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and the BJP leader, Jana Krishnamurthy at the NDA meeting in New Delhi on Sunday.
The TDP's announcement came shortly after a 90-minute meeting of the NDA here this evening, in which the latter issued an appeal to its ``valued friend'' to continue supporting the Government as it had been doing for the last four years. The NDA meeting, held in the backdrop of the demand by some allies that the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, be removed from office, was chaired by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and attended by most allies, barring the Trinamool Congress and the Lok Janshakti Party. The meeting underlined that the NDA had been and remained fully committed to its agenda and "reaffirms unequivocally'' its confidence in the leadership of Mr. Vajpayee. In effect, the NDA rejected the ``oust Modi'' demand by the allies such as the TDP, the Trinamool Congress, the Janata Dal (United) and the LJP, and reminded them of its commitment to federalism. With the TDP remaining firm on its demand for Mr. Modi's ouster and the Trinamool Congress agreeing to follow its footsteps, the contradictions within the NDA over the issue remained. The NDA convener, George Fernandes, kept "live contact'' with the TDP chief, N. Chandrababu Naidu, through the day. Mr. Naidu, in turn, contacted some NDA allies such as the JD (U) chief, Sharad Yadav, to ascertain their stand. In its appeal, the NDA said that in a federal polity, "interference in the democratic functioning of States or of Delhi determining who is or is not to be the Chief Minister of any particular State will completely distort the constitutional balance of federalism.'' Briefing correspondents, Mr. Fernandes said the meeting strongly criticised the recent statements of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and the Congress general secretary about the Prime Minister. "They are not only irresponsible and in bad taste, but they also represent the lowest ebb of political immorality.'' He said the NDA was "unanimous'' in its resolve to defeat the scheming of the "Congress and its cohorts.'' The Alliance had decided not to permit any destabilisation of the country at "this critical juncture," that too when the Defence forces were deployed on the borders. The meeting had also decided to send a team of NDA delegates to Gujarat on Tuesday to review the relief and rehabilitation measures. The composition of the team would be finalised tomorrow, Mr. Fernandes said. At the meeting, none of the allies had either suggested that Mr. Modi be removed or demanded the imposition of Central rule in Gujarat. Those who attended the meeting included the BJP Union Ministers, L. K. Advani, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan and Vijay Goel, the BJP president, K. Jana Krishnamurthi, the former BJP chief, Kushabhau Thakre, and the party spokesman, Vijay Kumar Malhotra. Arjun Charan Sethi (BJD), Murasoli Maran (DMK) Sharad Yadav (JD-U), Sushil Kumar Indora (INLD), Maneka Gandhi (Independent), Nitish Kumar (Samata Party), Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD), Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena), Ali Mohammed Naik (NC), Rajeev Shukla (ABLC), Sukh Ram (HVC), and P. C. Thomas (IFDP) were also present.
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