AIADMK belligerent

CHENNAI, April 2 (PTI) — The AIADMK today maintained a belligerent stance towards the BJP with its leaders holding an emergency meeting and insisting that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee should disapprove of the critical remarks of Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.R. Kumaramangalam against its leadership.

Even as the BJP sought to treat the controversy generated by Mr Kumaramangalam’s criticism of AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha as a "closed chapter", AIADMK leaders met here tonight informally on the eve of the party’s general council which will consider resolutions on various issues.

One of the two AIADMK nominees in the Union Council of Ministers, Minister of State for Personnel and Finance K.M.R. Janarthanan told reporters tonight that Mr Vajpayee had not described Mr Kumaramangalam’s remarks as "wrong."

He was responding to a question whether the party was satisfied with the Prime Minister’s statement that the remarks made by Mr Kumaramangalam was his personal view.

"You can hear our views tomorrow after the general council meeting", he said without elaborating.

Mr Janarthanan said Mr Kumaramangalam was "afraid" of contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Trichy and had become a Cabinet minister because of Ms Jayalalitha.

Asked whether the party was upset with Mr Kumaramangalam’s remarks, he said: "We are not upset".

Meanwhile, facing unprecedented attacks on its credibility from its allies, the AIADMK will hold its general council meeting here tomorrow.

Cong not keen to help AIADMK
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, April 2 — The sabre-rattling by the AIADMK notwithstanding, the Congress does not appear to be keen on lending it a helping hand in destabilising the Atal Behari Vajpayee government.

A day after the AIADMK threatened to pull out of the coalition in the wake of certain remarks of the Union Power Minister, Mr P R Kumaramangalam, the Congress appeared lukewarm to the idea of disturbing the present arrangement while maintaining that the possibility of the government collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions could not be ruled out.

Party sources said the primary aim of the Congress was to try and force the BJP-led coalition to accept its demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the dismissal of the Naval Chief and embarrass the government in Parliament.

Signals emanating from Chennai indicated that while AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha had not taken kindly to the strong statement made by Mr Kumaramangalam two days ago, her advisers had suggested a cautious approach.

Senior party leaders while issuing a threat last night put a rider that the AIADMK would carry it out only if the Prime Minister stated that he approved of Mr Kumaramangalam’s statement.

Mr Kumaramangalam had said that Ms Jayalalitha had changed her stand by raising the demand for a JPC after having agreed to go by the decision arrived at the Coordination Committee meeting here. This was against the spirit of collective responsibility. He had questioned why should the AIADMK be part of the alliance, if it disagreed with the other alliance partners on the issue.

The Prime Minister distanced himself from the statement made by the Power Minister by clarifying that Mr Kumaramangalam’s comments were made in his personal capacity.

The AIADMK General Council is scheduled to meet in Chennai tomorrow where the party is expected to review the developments after Ms Jayalalitha’s visit to Delhi and her meeting with the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

Officially, too, the Congress maintains that the friendly ties between the party and the AIADMK should not be viewed through a political prism.

"The Congress always extends a hand of friendship to secular parties and there is no need to view this through a political prism,’’ party spokesperson Girja Vyas said today.

However, the party has ridiculed the reference to collective responsibility made by Mr Kumaramangalam, stating that utterances by the minister himself and statements by the Prime Minister showed that the BJP itself did not respect such principles.

On its part, the BJP is said to be prepared to face any eventuality while it also feels that the AIADMK may not carry out the threat since its leader will be vulnerable to action from the state government in the absence of any support from the Centre.

Crucial AIADMK meeting today

CHENNAI, April 2 (PTI) — Facing unprecedented attacks on its political credibility from its allies, the AIADMK will hold its general council meeting here tomorrow in the backdrop of a major stand-off with the ruling BJP that is likely to dominate the one-day conclave.

The party, headed by Jayalalitha, had only last night prepared itself for a showdown with the BJP and its allies, by threatening to withdraw its support to the government, if Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee endorsed the opinion of Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.R. Kumaramangalam that the AIADMK could keep out of the ruling coalition instead of criticising it from within.

However, Mr Vajpayee, by distancing himself from Mr Kumaramangalam’s statement, has taken the steam out of what threatened to become a major confrontation. Mr Vajpayee has termed the statement as being the Power Minister’s personal view.

Yet, the general council is likely to respond in kind to the strident criticism emanating from a section of the BJP (Pramod Mahajan and Kumaramangalam), the Samata Party and Trinamool Congress, apart from reiterating the AIADMK’s stated position on Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat issue.

The meeting also assumes significance in the backdrop of Jayalalitha’s recent five-day visit to New Delhi, her brief tete-e-tete with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and subsequent hints that the AIADMK has political realignments in mind.

SALEM (UNI): Dr S. Ramadoss, founder-leader of the Pattali Makkal Katch (PMK), a constituent of the BJP-led government at the centre here on Friday expressed confidence that AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha would not withdraw her party's support to the Vajpayee government and even if she did, his party would continue to support the government.

Mr Ramadoss hoped that Ms Jayalalitha, a clever woman, would not subscribe to Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy's ideas, who he claimed had a "hidden agenda" and was engaged in "destructive politics".

Everybody knows how Dr Swamy had criticised Ms Jayalalitha in the past and went to court against her", he added.

Defending Defence Minister George Fernandes on the Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat issue, Mr Ramadoss said "Mr Fernandes is an honest, efficient and simple man".