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BJP to take stronger stand than Govt. on Iraq

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 27. At its coming national executive committee meeting in Indore, the Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to take a stand stronger than that of the Government on the United States-led attack on Iraq, possibly by adopting a resolution.

A view that this should be done was expressed at a meeting of the party general secretaries called by its president, Venkaiah Naidu, at his residence here this evening. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, attended the meeting for some time. It was felt that while the Government may have its limitations on a delicate foreign policy issue, the BJP could certainly express a view which would be "closer to the people's perception of the ongoing war," party general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, later told reporters.

It seems that while the party "may not" go as far as to condemn the U.S. for invading Iraq, a sovereign state, it could "deplore" the unleashing of violence on innocent people.

The meeting decided that another "hold-all" resolution should be adopted on the domestic political situation with an emphasis on the achievements of the Vajpayee Government over the last five years. This was considered fit as the Prime Minister completed five years in office on March 19 this year. An attack on the Congress, especially through references to what it could not do in its rule lasting more than four decades, would be part of this resolution.

Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani would attend the two-day executive which would discuss the party's preparedness and strategy for the Assembly elections in four crucial States in the north later this year. At today's meeting, the BJP leaders attacked the Congress for trying to make political capital out of the gruesome murder of BJP leader, Haren Pandya, in Ahmedabad. "Mr. Narendra Modi (Gujarat Chief Minister) may have had some differences with Haren Pandya, but to suggest that he was in any way responsible for or connected with the assassination was quite disgraceful and deplorable," Mr. Mahajan said.

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