The Hindu : BJP still a party with a difference: Jaitley

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 19, 2002

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National

BJP still a party with a difference: Jaitley

SHIMLA AUG. 18. The senior BJP leader and party spokesperson, Arun Jaitley, today welcomed the Union Cabinet's decision to seek a Presidential reference to the Supreme Court on the Gujarat election issue. "The Government, by doing so, had shown political and constitutional statesmanship and attempted to avoid a deadlock, which the EC decision could create," he told presspersons here.

Referring to the EC decision to defer polls, he said ``it is a situation when a constitutional authority disregards a constitutional provision. A gap of more than six months between two Assembly sessions can never occur and only in a case of breakdown of constitutional machinery can the polls be deferred. The EC has no jurisdiction either to suggest or to create a situation for imposing President's rule. Democracy and elections are great healers and they should be allowed".

Mr. Jaitley, here in connection with organisation-building exercise, said that the BJP was still a party with a difference. After coming out of the Janata Party, ``the BJP had set a different measure with some stiff targets for itself and we try to be different.'' "Though the party targets have to be ideal and we are still in idealism, we will not compromise as our workers are still dedicated."

He suggested that the media do some soul-searching as now it ``sees scams where none exists.'' Defending the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan, he said there is ``no shred of evidence" in the allegations of Madhu Sharma, wife of R.K. Sharma, prime suspect in the Shivani murder case. ``The allegations against the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, are also totally incorrect and malicious.''

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