COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

George meets President

Defence Minister George Fernandes, who is in the eye of the storm over the Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat dismissal, met President K R Narayanan on Tuesday and briefed him on the controversy and the current political scenario.

The 40-minute meeting was described by Rashtrapati Bhavan sources as routine.

Meanwhile, the minister's party, the Samata Party, charged the Opposition parties with being either ignorant or dishonest about the country's security-related matters while making Fernandes the butt of their attack.

"The Opposition parties are merely playing into the hands of hostile foreign powers," party spokesman Digvijay Singh and general secretary Jaya Jaitley told newspersons in Delhi.

They said AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha had her own gameplan in attacking Fernandes, but the Left parties in particular had done a disservice to the country by criticising the Agni II test, they said.

On West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu's statement against the missile test, the two leaders said Basu and his CPI-M party have not been known for any concern over the nuclear and missile development in the neighbourhood.

Referring to the meeting between Fernandes and the President, the Samata Party leaders said as defence minister he had to report directly to the President, particularly when Rashtrapati Bhavan was being sought to be driven into controversy over defence matters.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Dr Farooq Abdullah has reaffirmed his support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government, but said a final decision on the issue would be taken by the party working committee.

Dr Abdullah disclosed he had spoken to Jayalalitha and asked her to continue her party's support to the Vajpayee government. The National Conference has three members in the Lok Sabha.

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav has alleged that the BJP is offering as much as Rs 900 million to ''key persons'' to save the Vajpayee government.

''An NRI is staying in a five-star hotel in New Delhi to facilitate the horse-trading,'' Yadav alleged.

The former Bihar chief minister said a ''secular government'' would be formed following the fall of the Vajpayee government. He, however, refused to divulge details about the composition of such a government.

''Departure of communal forces is more important than anything else at this moment. Let the BJP government go, the modalities of the new government will be finalised soon after,'' he maintained.

The RJD leader reacted sharply to a statement by Uttar Pradesh Congress president Salman Khurshid that the Congress might think of forming even a minority government. ''He (Khurshid) is not authorised to speak on the issue. It is to be believed only when party president Sonia Gandhi says something in this regard,'' Yadav said.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report