NEW DELHI, NOV 13: Nationalist Congress Party today dismissed any threat to the ruling Congress-NCP coalition in Maharashtra through the BJP's plans to drive a wedge between the two on the issue of barring persons of foreign origin from holding high offices."There will be no danger to the Maharashtra Government in view of BJP's plans to bring a non-official resolution in the Assembly session next month on the foreign origin issue," State Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said.Briefing reporters here at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of extended working committee of the NCP, he said that if the BJP was sincere about the issue, it should bring such a legislation in Parliament.Party's chief spokesperson Devendra Dwivedi spoke in a similar vein. He accused the BJP of "malafide intentions" by attempting to raise the issue in Maharashtra Legislature instead of the Parliament.He, along with Bhujbal, said that the NCP was committed to the issue of barring people of foreign origin from holdinghigh offices and "there is no dilution in this principled stand".Party president Sharad Pawar, while winding up the discussions at the working committee, justified the NCP's decision to have an alliance with Congress in Maharashtra, saying it was a tactical move to keep the Shiv Sena-BJP out of power. "Strategy is one thing and ideology another," he said.The NCP, which is poised to get recognition as a National party by the Election Commission, was keen on strengthening a new formation in the new millennium as the Lok Sabha results showed that neither the BJP nor Congress had got people's mandate, Dwivedi said.A special meeting of the party's working committee is being held here on November 22 to set up small groups to prepare for the forthcoming Assembly elections in Bihar, Orissa and Manipur.Pawar said that there was possibility of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana too, along with these three states.To a question, Bhujbal indicated that the Maharashtra Government intended to comeout with a fresh Action Taken Report (ATR) on the report of the Srikrishna Commission that held the inquiry into the Mumbai riots in the wake of Babri mosque demolition in 1992.Stating that action would be taken against those who have been found guilty by the Commission, he, however, declined to give any deadline for the purpose.The meeting saw the NCP setting up a national relief committee headed by Bhujbal for cyclone-affected people of Orissa.The NCP also criticised the "muted response" of the Government to the establishment of military dictatorship in Pakistan.
