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Andhra CM’s message to PM
TDP under pressure to reconsider its support to NDA

From B L Kak

NEW DELHI, Mar 18: The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, is said to be "sad" following the receipt of news, which is "bad". And the news from the Andhra Chief Minister, Mr N Chandrababu Naidu, is that he finds himself under pressure from a section of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) for reconsidering the party’s support to the ruling NDA coalition at the Centre.

Having reckoned the fact that the expose of defence corruption has become a political earthquake that has shattered the credibility of the Vajpayee Government, Mr Chandrababu Naidu is understood to have apprised the Prime Minister of his (Mr Naidu’s) limitations and clearly indicated that he may not be able to control certain angry members of his organisation, Telegu Desam Party.

The Telugu Desam Party, which supports the Vajpayee Government from outside, has 29 members in the Lok Sabha. The TDP’s support is not only decisive but also crucial for the survival of the NDA Government.

It can be said without any fear of contradiction that Mr Chandrababu Naidu wanted the best of the both worlds when he extended unconditional and outside support to the NDA Government. But following the sensational expose of defence deals scandal, the situation has changed drastically and dramatically, forcing several Telugu Desam Party MPs to go into an introspective mode.

Mr Chandrabau Naidu’s message to the Prime Minister was sent out from Hyderabad after a high-level meeting of the TDP leaders and a group of Ministers on the developing situation and the "risk" involved in ignoring the mounting criticism against the Government by almost all Opposition parties and groups.

True, Mr Naidu’s enhanced influence over the Prime Minister was borne out by two significant developments, both of them being the outcome of the Andhra Chief Minister’s suggestions. First, the announcement by the Prime Minister of an inquiry into the expose by tehelka. com. And, second, Mr Vajpayee’s decision to go to the people through the electronic media on Friday night. But the formation of the People’s Front, a third alternative, led by Mr Jyoti Basu, has now set Mr Naidu thinking anew.

Confirming that the Telugu Desam leadership is "closely watching the situation", Mr K Yerran Naidu, leader of the Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party, told EXCELSIOR that his party leadership-Andhra Chief Minister, to be precise-continued to be in touch with the party MPs on the one hand and, on the other hand, with leaders of certain constituents of the NDA Government on the developing situation.

The Telugu Desam Party, currently regarded as all-important regional organisation, finds itself in an uncomfortable position where it may sooner or later be called upon to decide whether it should continue to prop up the Vajpayee Government or bring it down.

The Vajpayee Government finds itself on the horns of a dilemma, considering the fact that the exit of 5 PMK and 9 Trinamul Congress MPs from the NDA has reduced the Government to a minority. The ruling combine now has the support of 262 members, nine short of the half-way mark in a House of 540.

The Samajwadi Party leader and former Defence Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been, for the past few days, working overtime to create conditions with the help of the rest of the Opposition against smooth existence of the Government, has described the NDA coalition as "a daily wage Government", living each days as it comes. This epithet, it may be recalled, was used by the BJP for the IK Gujral Government.

Talking to EXCELSIOR, Mr Mulayam Yadav said that the Government’s dependence on the Telegu Desam Party for survival had increased. "But this party (TDP), though lending support to the NDA Government from outside, cannot always have the best of the both worlds", Mr Yadav warned.

When asked to elaborate, Mr Mulayam Yadav explained that if the TDP decided to support the "highly controversial" Government at the Centre, then it would have to bear both the political and moral responsibility for every action of the Government, both in Parliament and before the people.

The Prime Minister has strong reasons to be "sad" because the health of his Government is now "bad". Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK, which is also a constituent of the NDA coalition, is vulnerable to the same logic that drove the Trinamul Congress from the NDA. The DMK faces a tough Assembly election against a resurgent Jayalalitha.

According to intelligence reports, the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala is another ally of the Vajpayee Government "ready to choose his separate route" in the future. And if these reports are any guide, a split has occurred in the Biju Janata Dal on its support to the NDA Government at the Centre.

Cong vows to force NDA to quit
Sonia opposes J&K's trifurcation

BANGALORE, Mar 18: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today made it clear that her party would never accept partition of Jammu and Kashmir as being suggested in some quarters.

"Let me categorically say with all the firmness at my command that Congress will never accept partition of Jammu and Kashmir," Gandhi said in her opening remarks at the party’s 81st plenary session here.

"We are more than prepared to support any initiative, back any policy that brings peace in Kashmir but where is that policy?" the Congress president asked.

She assailed the NDA Government for its ‘vacillation and incoherence’ on Kashmir and wondered whether it had any policy worth the name to restore peace in the trouble-torn Valley.

Questioning the efficacy of ceasefire, Gandhi said it had failed to produce desired results, despite three extensions, as reflected by continued killings.

Pointing out that some Sangh Parivar elements had floated the idea of trifurcating the State, she asserted that her party would never accept the partition of Kashmir which, she said, was the profound symbol of India’s secularism.

Pointing to the contradictions in the Centre’s Kashmir policy, Gandhi said " different elements of the Government are at odds with each other over whom to deal with, how to deal with them and in what direction the dialogue must move."

Meanwhile, the first plenary of the All India Congress Committee in the new millennium concluded here today with the resolve to launch a nation-wide agitation to force the shameful, corrupt and communal NDA Government to quit on moral grounds.

Details of the action plan will be announced in Delhi tomorrow, Mrs Sonia Gandhi declared in her presidential address. We have decided to take on the Government in Parliament and outside, Mrs Gandhi said amidst thunderous applause from the ten thousand odd delegates while winding up the session.

In a major policy shift the party also conveyed its readiness to form a coalition Government at the Centre with like-minded parties without compromising on secularism. Through the economic resolution, the AICC pledged to protect and promote Nehuruvian mixed economy , where the public and the private sectors could co-exist and the PSUs playing a dominant role. The party opposed indiscriminate disinvestment in the PSUs for the sake of bridging the fiscal deficit. It debunked the BJP’s false propaganda that the BJP’s economic polity was a parody of the Congress party’s economic agenda.

The party called upon the Vajpayee Government to resume a dialogue with Pakistan to peacefully resolve all bilateral issues. While welcoming the extension of the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir, the party said the Government should take the people into confidence and build a national consensus.

The AICC expressed concern over the plight of the farmers. After a detailed discussion, in a resolution on the agricultural sector for the first time, the party assured the farming community that it would stand by them as in the past. It would remain ever vigilant in protecting their interest in their hour of crisis. It charged the Government with abdicating its responsibility for the crisis in the agricultural sector by putting the blame on WTO.

Continuing her virulent attack, Mrs Gandhi accused the BJP-RSS -VHP combine of subverting the values of Indian cultural heritage by saffronising educataion and other institutions.

She said that attempts were on to impose an artifical homegeneity on a vastly heterogenous social fabric and politics was being made blatantly partisan. She advised the Congress Chief Ministers to expedite socio-economic measures for the welfare of the down-trodden. She advised the partymen in the non-Congress ruled States to play a constructive and positive role. (Agencies)