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Letter to PM was in tune with BJP stand: Khurana

Former Union minister Madan Lal Khurana who was removed last night from the party's vice-presidentship, today defended his letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee about ''the US intervention in India's internal matters and the Sankhya Vahini project''.

He told the media that whatever he had said in the letter was in tune with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party's stand on these issues.

Replying to questions, he said he bore no grudge against anybody for last night's action against him. ''But I am pained that I have not been told about my crimes,'' he added.

He was also hurt about the manner in which a senior party functionary like him was treated by the Prime Minister's Office. He had tried to seek an appointment with Vajpayee from April 1 to 16 to discuss ''these issues which are of national interest''.

On April 17, he wrote another letter to the prime minister seeking appointment and he was ''given an appointment the following day just for five to seven minutes which he found very inadequate to discuss in detail these important issues'' -- withdrawal of subsidy on the public distribution system commodities, the US secretary of commerce's letter of December 16, 1999 to the special secretary, commerce, asking him to remove quantitative restrictions on 1429 items of import and the memorandum of understanding in regard to the Sankhya Vahini project.

Replying to a question, Khurana refuted the allegation that he was acting at the behest of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar.

He clarified that he had gone to meet Chandra Shekhar on March 7 to inquire about his leg injury. It was at that time that a journalist who had also come to meet the former prime minister had given him a copy of the US commerce secretary's letter which he showed to Vajpayee the very next day.

Khurana said the prime minister told him that his government was bound to take the decision to honour the commitment given by the previous regime. As per the agreement, the quantitative restrictions with European Union and Japan were to be removed in a phased manner by April 2003.

But a second agreement was arrived at with the US in which the timeframe for withdrawal of QRS was advanced by two years, that is, from April 2001.

He reiterated his charge that the government was acting under pressure from the US on this issue which will damage the interests of the domestic industry.

Khurana said he would submit a fresh notice on Tuesday to Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi for a discussion on these issues under rule 193.

He was not submitting the original notice, which four BJP MPs had signed. ''I don't want to embarrass them,'' he clarified. He would be collecting fresh signatures including those of the allies.

Replying to another question, the BJP leader said neither the RSS chief nor the party functionaries had asked him at any time to raise these issues in Parliament.

''The RSS continues to be our guide and philosopher. The RSS viewpoints are guided by the Swadeshi movement,'' he added.

He appealed to his followers who had gathered at his residence this morning not to agitate and raise slogans against ''our own family'' (the BJP).

UNI

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