Cong acts tough on Bofors
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 28 — The Congress today warned the Vajpayee government against taking its support in Parliament for granted and demanded that Rajiv Gandhi’s name be deleted from the Bofors chargesheet.

"The Congress would like to make it very clear to the ruling BJP government that they should not take for granted the main Opposition party in Parliament for their support. Mrs Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Opposition, has offered to play the role of a constructive opposition but it would be difficult to do so when the government is out to make personal attacks on Rajiv Gandhi as well as Sonia Gandhi", party spokesman Anil Shastri said in a statement here.

He said it was unfortunate that despite the assurance given by Union Home Minister L.K. Advani on the floor of the House on October 29, the Government would consider deleting the name of late Rajiv Gandhi from the chargesheet filed by the CBI in the Bofors case, no further action seems to have been taken by the government in this regard.

On the contrary, he said there had been contradictory statements on the issue by senior ministers in the government.

Mr Shastri said the Bofors issue had been very sensitive to all Congressmen in the country for the past 13 years and the Congress President and other senior leaders of the party had off and on reiterated that the guilty in the Bofors case should be brought to book and punished.

He said Rajiv Gandhi himself had denied all allegations in the Lok Sabha in this connection and the Joint Parliamentary Committee, comprising all political parties, had come to the conclusion that neither Rajiv Gandhi nor any member of his family were involved in receiving any money from Bofors.

In the last 13 years, there had not been a shred of evidence about the alleged involvement of the Rajiv Gandhi family and even in the chargesheet submitted by the CBI, Rajiv Gandhi had not been charged with any allegation of taking money for purchase of Bofors guns, he added.

Adding that the government move was politically motivated, Mr Shastri said the government’s one point programme appeared to be to embarrass Mrs Sonia Gandhi to settle political scores.

"This attitude is negation of democratic principles and norms to fight the Opposition. The Congress wants the BJP to base its fight against policies, programmes and ideology and not on political vendetta", he said.

Referring to an unparliamentary remark made against Mrs Sonia Gandhi recently by a senior member of the Cabinet, the Congress spokesman said it was most unfortunate that the minister had not had the courtesy of either denying his statement or tendering an apology to the leader of the Opposition.

Taking serious view of the BJP tactics, he said the party would organise a massive demonstration in the Capital on Monday and Congressmen would march towards Rashtrapati Bhavan to submit a memorandum to the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan today said that the government would make a statement in Parliament tomorrow on what it did during the inter-session period on the issue of deletion of Mr Rajiv Gandhi's name in the Bofors chargesheet.

He stated this during a discussion on "Star News".

In another interview to Jain TV, Minister of State for Law, Justice, and Company Affairs O. Rajagopal said there was no question of the government removing Mr Rajiv Gandhi's name from the CBI chargesheet in the Bofors case because it was not in the Centre's hands.

RJD resurrects Mandal plank

RAJGIR (Bihar), Nov 28 (PTI) — The ruling RJD today resurrected its 'Mandal plank," pledged not to allow division of Bihar and announced a series of agitational programmes against Vananchal and price hike in an apparent bid to consolidate its position during the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

The two-day brain storming session that concluded here today held an introspection on the party's debacle during the Lok Sabha elections even though its votes' share increased by nearly five per cent.

"We polled nearly 1 crore votes while our allies the Congress and the CPM secured around 46 lakh votes but we lost our precious seats," RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav told the concluding session.

Tracing various reasons including lack of co-ordination among RJD activists, alleged discriminatory role of central forces and election observers behind his party's poor showing, the RJD President foresaw the return of the RJD ministry after the Assembly polls in Bihar due early next year.

Coining slogans of veteran socialist Ram Manohar Lohia, the RJD chief said "vote ka raj matlab chhot ka raj (rule of votes means rule of the poors). Hamne kaun haryage (who will defeat us, we have formidable mass support), "he said, warning his party workers against any indiscipline.

Mr Yadav revived the Mandal plank in a bid to force a social engineering in favour of his party in 'Mandalised Bihar' during coming Assembly elections.

Mr Yadav called for immediate reservation for Dalits and Dalit minorities in judiciary, jobs and promotions and said the Rabri Devi government was irrevocably committed to providing reservations to extremely backward people in panchayati raj institutions.

He said the state government had already filed a special leave petition in the Apex Court against a Patna High Court order striking down the provisions for reservation for the oppressed sections of society in panchayati raj institutions.

Mr Yadav, during his speech, launched a scathing attack on Union Communication Minister and Dalit Sena’s national president Ram Vilas Paswan, describing the latter as a "five star Dalit leader having no interest in their uplift."

He charged that Mr Paswan and Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar had "joined the communal bogey led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as they had no commitment to the cause of social justice and secularism. People will expose Paswan and Nitish during the Assembly polls."

During the meeting, he attacked the Central and pledged to finish the communal forces for all times to come and make any sacrifice to prevent the Centre from carving out a separate Vananchal state.

"People of the state will never tolerate the BJP for its undemocratic and sinister designs to make Vananchal the colony of RSS," he said. Announcing a series of agitational programmes to forestall the tabling of the state reorganisation Bill for Vananchal in Parliament.