Date:08/07/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/07/08/stories/2005070812480400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Poojary criticises BJP demand

Special Correspondent

`Emulate Congress which set example when Parliament House was attacked'

B. Janardhana Poojary

BANGALORE: While condemning the attempted terrorist attack on the makeshift Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President, B. Janardhana Poojary, has told the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh Parivar organisations to emulate the Congress which displayed political maturity and set an example when even Parliament House came under a terrorist attack in December 2001.

In a statement to the press, Mr. Poojary said that those organisations should desist from trying to gain political capital out of issues that could inflame public passions. Instead of congratulating the security forces, which foiled the attempt by the terrorists, the BJP leaders are demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil. There is no meaning in the demand.

The terrorist attack on Parliament House took place when the National Democratic Alliance was in power, but the Congress did not demand the resignation of the then Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, or the then Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, at that time, Mr. Poojary noted.