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It's not Parliament's job: PM

New Delhi April 23. Maintaining that law and order is a State subject, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today said it was not the job of Parliament to discuss State issues and should not be treated as a ``precedent'' in future.

He was reacting to the Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker, P.M. Sayeed's ruling admitting the Opposition censure motion on Gujarat. Addressing newspersons here, Mr. Vajpayee said the Government would abide by the ruling and expressed confidence that the motion would be defeated.

Repeatedly pointing to the wording of the motion, he said under that the entire country's law and order situation would be discussed with particular reference to Gujarat.

About the criticism that the minorities were in "danger" in India, Mr. Vajpayee said the ``minorities enjoyed equal rights and were getting full protection''.

Asked if the ruling National Democratic Alliance was hopeful of weathering the motion in the Lok Sabha, he said: ``Even our opponents who have moved the motion know what fate it will meet''. On whether such a motion would have been admitted if the NDA had its own nominee as the Speaker, Mr. Vajpayee said ``this Speaker (Dy. Speaker) is also ours''.

PMO clarifies remarks

The Prime Minister's Office tonight clarified that Mr. Vajpayee had not termed as "unfortunate" Mr. Sayeed's ruling on the Opposition censure motion.

A PMO spokesman said that Mr. Vajpayee, while talking to reporters at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, only described as unfortunate the wording of the Opposition motion on the Gujarat situation. — PTI

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