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BJP rupturing foreign ties with vitriol, says Congress

The Congress today charged the Bharatiya Janata Party with damaging India's good relations with its neighbours by "irresponsible and dangerous" statements following the nuclear tests.

Party spokesman Salman Khurshid said the BJP leaders's provocative statements would cause irreparable damage to the good relations built assiduously over the last five decades.

Referring to BJP spokesman Venkaiah Naidu's statement, he said there was no difference in the Congress over the Pokhran tests, and asked Naidu to confine himself to his brief. Naidu had welcomed Congress leader Sharad Pawar's views on the tests while regretting those of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

''Naidu suffers from a combination of illusions of grandeur and a deep-seated guilt complex," he alleged. Gandhi had already extended the party's greetings to the scientific community and reminded the BJP that the task could be carried out due to the 40 years of untiring efforts and policies of the Congress.

He also asked Naidu to 'educate' his colleague and prime minister's political advisor Pramod Mahajan who, he said, was contradicting the prime minister every day. It is one thing to be a spokesperson to the prime minister and it is quite another to be a contrary 'voice' of the prime minister. After multiple faces, now we have the scenario of multiple voices, Khurshid said.

To a question, Khurshid -- minister of state for external affairs in the Narasimha Rao government -- said Mahajan had contradicted Vajpayee on several counts -- including weaponisation, signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, possession of bomb and counter guarantees to power projects.

He also criticised the government for moving towards fascism through 'thought control' and regulation of bureaucrats. The formation of the Bharat Gaurav Sanstha by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to keep civil servants under constant surveillance was a dangerous trend and the beginning of a parallel government, he alleged.

The moves for 'ideology cops' for the civil service like the Shiv Sena's cultural cops, were attempts to gradually stifle dissent and diversity in a democratic set-up, he said.

UNI

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