The Hindu : Arunachal crisis: BJP denies Cong. charge

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Friday, Aug 01, 2003

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Arunachal crisis: BJP denies Cong. charge

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 31. The Bharatiya Janata Party has described as ``highly objectionable'' the Congress' behaviour and its allegations in connection with the fall of its Government in Arunachal Pradesh.

The party has denied the charge that the Congress Government was brought down through defections engineered with the help of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland - Isak-Muivah (NSCN — I-M).

The party president, Venkaiah Naidu, said the Congress was practising ``cheap politics'' (ghatiya rajniti) instead of looking inwards to determine what happened in the State.

Placing ``facts'' before reporters ``witnessed by the entire country,'' Mr. Naidu said that 23 Ministers in the State Government resigned, 41 MLAs formed a separate group, the MLAs presented themselves before the Governor, and it would have been proper for the Chief Minister to have resigned immediately.

The party was amazed that on this issue the Congress should choose to disrupt proceedings in Parliament. ``Can the Centre give a majority to the Congress in Arunachal Pradesh? Can Parliament do anything about it?'' Mr. Naidu asked.

Allegations that the BJP had ``compromised national security'' by hobnobbing with the NSCN (I-M) in order to break the State Government were described as ``totally wrong''. Mr. Naidu's counter-charge was that it was the Congress that had the ``expertise'' to break governments. It had done so in the past in the same State, and in Chhattisgarh it had broken a section of the BJP MLAs.

On the Babri Masjid demolition case, Mr. Naidu said it was ridiculous for the Congress to charge that the CBI was deliberately suppressing evidence against the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and others. ``How can the CBI produce evidence that does not exist?''

The party spokesperson, V.K. Malhotra, added that the CBI tapes were prepared when the Narasimha Rao Government was in office.

``We challenge the Congress to produce any tape of Mr. Advani's speech (on December 6, 1992 at Ayodhya) — after all world media was present in full force — to prove that he instigated anyone to demolish the structure,'' Mr. Malhotra said.

The party also demanded that if the Congress was not able to maintain law and order in Maharashtra, ``it should resign''.

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