Date:21/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/21/stories/2004122105591100.htm

National

"BJP has lost credibility"

By A Correspondent

RANCHI, DEC. 20. The Bharatiya Janata Party has lost its credibility and its stalwarts, such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had no moral right to claim that they had met the aspirations of the tribals by granting statehood to Jharkhand, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member, Sitaram Yechury, said here today.

Talking to reporters, he said that due to the past four years of "BJP misrule" in Jharkhand, the tribals were leading a miserable existence. Mr. Vajpayee and other BJP leaders claimed time and again that they had met the aspirations of the tribals, but in reality the party had done nothing for their welfare.

Mr. Yechury said that by raising issues of Hindutva and that of the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya, the BJP was trying to "stoke communal tension" in the country.