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Journalism of Courage
CHENNAI, JAN 20: The BJP has not yet decided about its alliance with other parties for the four state Assembly elections – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa and Sikkim – due in November next, the BJP General Secretary M Venkaiah Naidu, said here today.
He told a press conference that the party’s strategy would be decided after consulting the party cadres in the respective states. The party had already completed its consultations in Andhra Pradesh at its two-day conclave at Vijayawada, which ended yesterday, he said adding that the party would organise such meets at Goa and Karnataka soon.
He urged the Centre to come out with a white paper on the communal clashes in the country during the past ten years. This would help the BJP to counter the Opposition propaganda that the communal clashes had become the order of day during the BJP-led coalition government.
He said he could not understand why the Congress and Left parties were against the Prime Minister A B Vajpayee’s suggestions for a nation-wide debate onreligious conversions, when some Christian missionaries and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had evinced interest in such a debate. The debate would reveal the truth behind the conversions, he said.
Naidu said there were charges that money from abroad, intended for voluntary organisations’ works, was being diverted by the missionaries for religious conversions. During the debate, this angle should also be probed, he said.
He described as unfortunate the attacks on Christians and their places of worship in Gujarat, but termed the Opposition demand for sacking the Gujarat government for the attacks as “politically motivated”.
He said no body raised such a demand into the gang rape of nuns in Madhya Pradesh, where Congress was in power. He alleged that the Congress had given party ticket to one of the accused in nun rape case to contest the Assembly poll in the state. In Orissa, the Congress was keeping mum over the gang rape of Anjana Mishra. This only exposed the “double standards” of Congress, headded.
On the Solicitor General Soli Sorabjee’s recent remarks in the Supreme Court in the special courts case that Centre alone had powers to transfer cases from one court to another, Naidu said he did not want to comment on the issue as it was sub judice. He said the DMK and other parties, which had protested against the Centre’s stand, should wait for the apex court’s verdict on the issue. “Let the law take its own course,” he said.
The BJP leader said that the Tamil Nadu government had launched a “witch hunt” of AIADMK supremo, Jayalalitha, and it was evident from the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s repeated onslaught against her.
The Insurance Regulatory Bill and Patents Bill, Naidu Said, were brought in as the previous governments had made commitments in the international fora on this front. The BJP government could not go back on the commitments, he added.
On the delay in the Cabinet expansion, Naidu said there was no problem as regards the BJP, but if other parties had any objection, theyshould raise it in the co-ordination committee meetings, instead of raking it up in the open. He said the BJP had not given up its agenda, but could not push through it now, because it was heading a coalition.
Replying to a question, the BJP leader said the Vajpayee government would complete its full term. He alleged the Congress was making attempts to entice some of the BJP alliance partners, but it could not succeed in its attempts to dislodge the Vajpayee government. He said BJP would organise a nation-wide campaign from Feb 11 to March 19, to inform the people about the achievements of the Vajpayee government.
