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BJP allies 'stand by' government

All the allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government today reaffirmed their support to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The assurance was extended at a meeting of the allies convened by Vajpayee, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana said after the meeting.

Khurana said the meeting was also attended by representatives of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham. He said the party's representative in the Cabinet, Minister of Law and Justice M Thambidurai had met Vajpayee twice since yesterday.

Vajpayee rejected the demand by the Opposition parties for the resignation of the government in view of the BJP's debacle in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, saying there was no such precedent that a ruling party at the Centre had resigned because of its poor showing in assembly elections.

Since 1993, when the Congress was in power at the Centre, the party had lost assembly elections in several states, including Delhi and Rajasthan, but the central government continued, Khurana said.

Vajpayee said the party needed to introspect over the defeat it suffered in the recent assembly elections. The rise in prices of essential commodities, which was a country-wide phenomenon, and some local issues had been made the main electoral planks by the Congress, which succeeded in winning the support of the people.

The prime minister and chief ministers had met recently to discuss ways to control price rise, following which the Centre and state governments agreed to work out a joint strategy to get over the problem. The government decided to move the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill to curb hoarding and profiteering, Vajpayee has said, but that the state government had enough power to tackle the menace of black-marketing and hoarding.

A long-term plan was being prepared to set a chain of cold-storages for preservation of perishable commodities. In this effort, private companies and state governments would be involved, he said.

Vajpayee said farmers should get remunerative prices even when they had good crops and it must also be ensured that consumer was made available commodities at reasonable prices even if crops failed due to natural calamities.

Accepting the election results, Vajpayee said, "We should not feel disappointed. Instead we should try to take corrective measures and have better coordination."

He said the BJP had won all the six Lok Sabha by-elections in the past eight months, including Bharuch, which was recently held. This had indicated that the people had not rejected the central government's policies and programmes.

Transparency would continue to be the hallmark of his governance and the government was ready to discuss all issues, including price rise, in Parliament.

Khurana said the Opposition had suggested eight issues to be taken up during the winter session of Parliament. These were price rise, railway accidents, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty-PM's talks, attack on minorities, shortage of manure, public sector divestment, floods/ natural calamities and takeover of the research institutions. The government had agreed to discuss all these issues and requested Lok Sabha Speaker Ganti Mohana Chandra Balayogi to fix a time for the same.

The business advisory committee would meet tomorrow for this purpose. The issues were raised by the Opposition parties at a meeting with the speaker earlier during the day.

Khurana said the government as well as the Opposition had agreed to send the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill to the joint committee of Parliament. The joint committee would be asked to submit its report within 10 days so that the bill could be passed in this session.

UNI

Assembly Election '98

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