The Hindu : PM's `clarification' draws flak

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 04, 2003

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PM's `clarification' draws flak

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 3. The Opposition parties were unimpressed by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's clarificatory statement on the Ayodhya temple issue. The Congress, the CPI(M) and the Lok Janshakti Party today criticised Mr. Vajpayee for making contradictory statements.

Reacting to the Prime Minister's statement this afternoon, the Congress spokesman, Jaipal Reddy, said the statement had "damaged the office of the Prime Minister and the political system in the country.'' Mr. Reddy said that it had become a habit with the Prime Minister to make provocative and controversial statements and then modify them under pressure.

Criticising Mr. Vajpayee for his double speak on issues, he said the Prime Minister had changed his position so often on issues that nobody actually knew what his actual stand was on any given issue. "Giving clarifications have become his trademark,'' said Mr. Reddy.

The CPI(M) also criticised the Prime Minister and demanded that he make a statement before Parliament on the issue. "We must hear from him in Parliament,'' said Somnath Chatterjee, party leader in the Lok Sabha. Mr. Chatterjee decried the fact that both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister had made public speeches by the funeral pyre of Mahant Paramhans. ``These speeches were made to arouse passions, it is just not acceptable,'' he said.

The Lok Janshakti Party president, Ramvilas Paswan, said that he would raise the issue in Parliament tomorrow. "The Prime Minister has no business making such frivolous statements on such a sensitive issue'' he said.

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