Monday, Jul 01, 2002
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By Vinay Kumar
L K Advani
Talking to newspersons at his Prithviraj Road residence, Mr. Advani said the Prime Minister had earlier consulted NDA allies on the proposal of appointing a Deputy Prime Minister, a post which does not find a mention in the Constitution. "In my view, the Prime Minister did the right thing. He could have taken the decision himself. What he did not only ensured the credibility of the Government, it also strengthened me'', he said. Mr. Advani said that he was not surprised by the decision. "The Prime Minister had made this decision about a month back but he did not speak to me about it or the party or anybody in the Government except the Defence Minister and Samata Party leader, George Fernandes because presumably the proper way to do this was to sound all allies. I came to know of the plan when Mr. Fernandes sounded the allies. It was purely the Prime Minister's initiative and I knew about it for the first time only two days back" he said. In Mr. Advani's opinion, the proposal would essentially help sort out problems among different parties and factions. He also felt that the Prime Minister may have been prompted to go ahead with the proposal by "sustained inputs that there were differences between him and Advani." Referring to the lunch the Prime Minister had at his Pandara Park residence last year, Mr. Advani said: "That morning Mr. Vajpayee rang up my wife and told her that he was coming home for lunch. In turn my wife telephoned me at my North Block office and asked me to return home for lunch an hour earlier. "This is his (the Prime Minister's) own inimitable style of debunking all the theories of Vajpayee-Advani differences''. The Home Minister discounted suggestions that his appointment would create two parallel power centres within the Government or the party. "Some Cabinet colleagues told me that the decision has only formalised an existing arrangement. Even the Prime Minister and other Ministerial colleagues used to consult me often. My job profile will not change and I feel that it will ensure smooth functioning of the Government''. Dwelling upon the nitty-gritty of coalition politics and running a 24-party coalition government at the Centre, Mr. Advani said that in a coalition arrangement personal or party ideologies did not count as different ideologies came together to form the government. He stressed that it was the common minimum agreed programme which formed the basic structure of managing the coalition government. "All this talk of my being a softliner or a hardliner has no substance. I am proud of what I have done in the past and the cause for which I did it. I have not been a victim of anything. In the past four years, I have heard many observers and commentators say different things but all these years I have been talking to the NDA allies," he said. Mr. Advani did not see any major transition in his position. ``It will not be very different from what I have been doing earlier. It does not mean that I become the Prime Minister's successor. There is hardly a difference of two or three years between me and Mr. Vajpayee. I told the Prime Minister that in terms of contesting the Lok Sabha elections, the party is very keen on seeing that he leads us in the next elections'', he said.
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