Date:10/07/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/07/10/stories/2004071008640400.htm

Tamil Nadu

`Lalu, Jayalalithaa cases are not same'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 9. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, today said the case of the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, one of the five `tainted' Union Ministers named by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, could not be equated with that of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa.

Asked how the distinction could be made when Mr. Lalu Prasad and Ms. Jayalalithaa were facing disproportionate wealth cases, the BJP leader said: "Ms. Jayalalithaa headed an alliance, which went to the (Assembly) election and she was elected by the people. But, in the case of Mr. Lalu Prasad, it was the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) who selected him into the Cabinet. The right to select Ministers is the Prime Minister's discretion," the former Minister said.

He further said Mr. Lalu Prasad was arrested twice and he chose not to "reclaim" chiefministership of Bihar. "When he could not become the Chief Minister of Bihar again, how could he be made a Union Minister," the BJP leader asked.

To repeated questions whether he would call Ms. Jayalalithaa a "tainted chief minister," he offered no answer but said her case was different.

Asked whether he agreed with Ms. Jayalalithaa's criticism of the Union Budget that it was an infringement on the rights of States, the former Union Minister said, "she is entitled to her views. The Budget does not have an all-India view."

He wondered how the Left was going to react to the proposal to disinvest about five per cent of the Government's shareholding in the National Thermal Power Corporation, which he described as a profit-making company.