The Hindu : Modi should go: TDP, Trinamool

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 01, 2002

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Modi should go: TDP, Trinamool

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 30. The Telugu Desam Party and the Trinamool Congress, two allies supporting the National Democratic Alliance from the outside, today struck an identical line in the Lok Sabha demanding the removal of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. The Trinamool went on to enlarge the scope of the argument by whipping the CPI(M)-led Left Front Government in West Bengal.

The TDP demanded change of leadership in Gujarat, liberal relief for the riot victims and their rehabilitation and maintenance of law and order. It also opposed elections in the State in the present circumstances.

The TDP asserted that the continuing violence in Gujarat had become a national issue since incidents had spilled over to other parts of the country. "If it was a State issue, a general issue and not a national issue, why did it extend to other parts of the country", the TDP Parliamentary party leader, K. Yerran Naidu, said while participating in the debate on the Opposition-sponsored censure motion.

In a speech heard with attention, he emphasised that it was the Central Government's duty under Article 355 to issue proper directives if the life and property of citizens were not adequately protected by a State Government.

While maintaining that the TDP did not want to interfere in the affairs of another State, or say who should be its Chief Minister, he said it had made these demands since the party was extending support to the Vajpayee Gvernment and saw the Gujarat situation as a national issue.

Mr. Yerran Naidu spent considerable time detailing the TDP's secular credentials since its inception nearly two decades ago.

The Trinamool chief, Mamata Banerjee, suggested an all-party peace march in Gujarat with both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition taking part in it. However, while attacking the Modi Government, she also focussed on taking on the Left Front Government in West Bengal. `State-sponsored' attacks, be it in any State, should be resisted, she said. Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena was critical that no one among the Opposition had condemned the Godhra carnage. He charged that even the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, had mentioned it only in passing.

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