UF ignores Congress's outburst, trains guns on BJP
In a tactical move, the ruling United Front on Friday declined to join issue with the Congress which had accused the Inder Kumar Gujral government of non-performance. Instead, the UF trained its guns on the Bharatiya Janata Party for raking up the controversial Ayodhya issue for electoral gains.
While the Congress Working Committee's virtual chargesheet against the UF government figured briefly in the combine's steering committee meeting on Friday, the issue was skirted by its spokesman S Jaipal Reddy at the media briefing.
Reddy was reluctant to discuss even the Congress's statement that coalition governments had failed in the country. He merely said the UF did not agree with the assessment. "The Congress is lending support to the government. We take the party with due seriousness," he said, adding that Prime Minister Gujral and Congress president Sitaram Kesri enjoyed ''excellent'' relations.
Ignoring the UF's reluctance, however, are its Left constituents. ''Kesri's grievance against the UF stems from former prime minister and senior UF leader H D Deve Gowda's pin-pricks at the Congress chief,'' indicated the Leftists.
Deve Gowda had been saying the Congress is about to ''disintegrate'' under Kesri's leadership.
The steering committee, however, blasted the Sangh Parivar's renewed attempts to rekindle the communal cauldron by talking about the Ayodhya issue.
According to Reddy, the UF government had taken grave exception to RSS chief Rajendra Singh's statement on Thursday that the Hindutva forces were determined to rebuild temples at Mathura and Kashi.
Reddy also deplored senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee's support to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and senior party leader Kalyan Singh in this regard.
UNI and Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
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