The Hindu : Inform people about action proposed, Paswan tells Centre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 20, 2002

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National

Inform people about action proposed, Paswan tells Centre

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 19. The national president of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and former Union Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, today said the Government should have clarity of purpose on the issue of national security, and inform the people about its course of action, following the terrorist attack in Jammu last Tuesday.

Briefing mediapersons at the end of the two-day national executive of the LJP here, Mr. Paswan said he welcomed the Government's decision to ask Pakistan to recall its High Commissioner. Condemning the killings, the LJP resolution on Jammu & Kashmir urged the Government to take any measure needed to stop such attacks.

While conceding that it would not be possible for the Government to reveal its strategy vis-à-vis Pakistan and the terrorism issue, Mr. Paswan said it could at least take the people into confidence and spell out its goal.

The national executive passed resolutions on the coming Presidential elections, the economic and agricultural scenario, besides half-a-dozen condolence references, which included tributes to those killed in the Gujarat violence and the attack on Parliament.

Persisting with its demand for the dismissal of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi — the issue on which LJP severed links with the NDA — Mr. Paswan said the Government's decision to refrain from using Article 355 against the State administration had set a bad precedent.

Ruling out the possibility of the LJP joining the People's Front in the immediate future, Mr. Paswan, said he would, instead, work towards bringing all secular and democratic parties on a common platform.

He said a secular-democratic front without Congress participation would be ineffective. To a specific question on whether efforts would be made to build bridges with the Congress, he quipped:

"Without the Congress in such a front, the field will be left open to the NDA.''

In its economic resolution, the LJP criticised the liberalisation policy of the Government and warned that the "open-door" policy towards multinationals could well result in slavery of the kind ushered in by the East India Company.

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