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PM to brief Opposition about blasts fallout

Prime Minister A B Vajpayee today assured the Opposition that his government would consider holding a separate meeting shortly to brief them about the political, economic and diplomatic fallout of the recent nuclear explosions conducted by the country.

Continuing the series of consultations with the opposition, Vajpayee and Home Minister L K Advani had a meeting with leaders of the Tamil Maanila Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam this morning.

Talking to UNI after the hour-long meeting, former finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the prime minister told them that the government would place in Parliament a detailed statement on the circumstances leading to the country resorting to the nuclear option. Chidambaram said he had suggested to the prime minister a separate meeting with the Opposition would be in order, since certain classified matters relating to the country's security could not be revealed in Parliament. He said the prime minister agreed to consider the suggestion.

The meeting was attended by Chidambaram and Peter Alphonse from the TMC and T R Balu from the DMK.

Chidambaram said the prime minister also told them that the government planned to hold a separate meeting with the Opposition on electoral reforms and the Prasar Bharati bill it proposed to move during the ensuing budget session of Parliament.

The former finance minister said most of the bills sought to be brought by the government were political in nature, and that several economic legislations were pending with the government for several months. He wanted to know the status of the FERA replacement bill and the money laundering bill. The government seemed to be silent on these issues, he told the prime minister. He also wanted to know the Bharatiya Janata Party's current stand on the Insurance Regulatory Authority bill since the party had earlier opposed it, forcing the previous government to withdraw the bill in haste.

Former Union minister Balu said his party pleaded for conferring statehood on Pondicherry. He told the prime minister that the government was considering the case of Delhi alone, and that the interests of the southern Union territory should not be neglected.

He also told the prime minister that the government should enact an amendment to the Constitution to protect 69 per cent reservations in Tamil Nadu in the context of restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court to confine the reservation quota to 50 per cent.

On the delimitation of constituencies proposed to be undertaken by the government, the DMK leader told the prime minister that the existing number of Lok Sabha constituencies in states should be protected at all costs, and that the government should not penalise states which had vigorously implemented family planning.

Advani, who was present at the meeting, suggested that the Opposition should consider across-the-board ten per cent increase in Lok Sabha seats for all states.

On the proposed bill to replace the controversial power ordinance, the DMK made it clear that under no circumstances should restrictions be imposed on state governments providing free power to the farmers. The state governments should have overriding powers to fix the power tariff.

UNI

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