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Samata blames EC for 'selective' approach

The Samata Party today said that the Election Commission should take cognisance of the Congress party playing politics with respect to the armed forces. It, however, said it would not approach the EC formally because of ''selectivity'' in its approach.

Party general secretary Jaya Jaitly said it was the EC which wanted the political parties to leave alone the armed forces and it was upto that constitutional body to take cognisance of the ''cynical misuse'' of armed forces for political benefit.

''We condemn the attitude of the Congress which is playing politics with a confidential letter, even after the chief of army staff had denied having received such a letter. If the EC had any concern it should take cognisance of these developments on its own,'' she said.

Jaitly said the Congress was keen to blame the government for Kargil but it should first answer for the deaths of 1,157 Indian soldiers killed in Sri Lanka during the Rajiv Gandhi period. ''Whose territory were they defending? What did Sonia Gandhi do during that period when soldiers were being killed,'' she asked.

She said the stance taken by the Congress would only help Pakistan and the situation in Kashmir and Kargil was still tense and it would not help the country to demean the forces still involved in fighting a difficult battle. The Congress, which did nothing for the welfare of the armed forces, was now busy shedding crocodile tears, she alleged.

Asked if the EC was biased, she said it was not biased but 'imbalanced' in its response. The EC, she said, had hauled up the Samata Party for things it had not done but had simply tended to go by the ''headlines'' in newspapers.

Asked about All India Congress Committee general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad's statement concerning Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's private life, Jaitly said that the Congress indulged in ''cheap retorts.''

UNI

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