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Political Notes

	August 02, 2004

Uttar Pradesh : Congress allegation

The Congress seems bent upon provoking the UP government headed by Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. Congress leader Satyabrata Chaturvedi has said the party was not satisfied with the prevailing law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh but there was no need to impose President’s rule in the state at present. Though the party was extending support to the state government, it was very much within its rights to raise issues confronting the people of the state, the party national general secretary told reporters.

The Congress had extended outside support to the Mulayam Singh government in the state in order to check the communal forces, Chaturvedi, who is in-charge of the state, said adding the party was trying to draw the attention of the state government to the law and order situation.

Meanwhile, admitting his party’s “troubled relationship” with the Congress, the Samajwadi Party general secretary, Amar Singh, has said his “public humiliation” at Congress president, Sonia Gandhi’s party in the run-up to the UPA Government formation “will cost them dearly”. He also said the trouble was “emanating from the top” in the Congress party.

He admitted that he felt “unwanted” at the party at 10 Janpath. He was very ashamed that he went there. Singh, along with RLD Chief Ajit Singh were taken to the party by CPI(M) general secretary, Harkishen Singh Surjeet. The Congress president did not look at him even once and just gave a “cold nod.”



Maharashtra : Differences crop up in NCP

With the Assembly elections in Maharashtra due in a few months, there is trouble within the Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar. The five-year-old NCP has several disgruntled non-Maratha leaders who were said to be ready to desert the party on the eve of crucial elections.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal has emerged as the rallying point for the dissatisfied NCP workers. Sources said Bhujbal was ready to leave NCP and that he has made no secret of his dissatisfaction over the manner in which he has been marginalised. Bhujbal has maintained a low profile from the time he was asked to resign. Bhujbal has a statewide network of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) activists and this can be his support base. Bhujbal had remained absent from an election meeting called by state NCP president R R Patil, which was interpreted as an expression of his displeasure at being marginalised by the party.

Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil had personally sought to persuade Bhujbal to attend the meeting, but failed. Union Aviation Minister Praful Patel, known to be Pawar’s righthand man, also tried to convince Bhujbal to refrain from taking drastic action, but similarly came away empty-handed.

Along with Bhujbal, Tribal Welfare Minister Madhukar Pichad, former Education Minister Laxman Dhoble, NCP spokesman Vasant Chavan and state party chief Babanrao Pachpute are reportedly set to leave the party before Congress-NCP talks for Assembly seat-sharing begin.



AK 47 deal: Congress reverses stand

The AK-47 gun deal under the Vajpayee

regime came in for criticism from the

Congress which had been alleging that it was a shady deal. But now, the Congress-led UPA government has contradicted Union Minister Kapil Sibal’s claim about the purchase of AK-47 assault rifles. Sibal, while in the Opposition, had charged the previous NDA government in April this year with corruption in the purchase of assault rifles for the paramilitary forces. Then as a Congress spokesman, Sibal alleged that a tender for the supply of AK-47 assault rifles worth Rs 200 billion had been awarded to a “notorious” Bulgarian company whose sister organisation was involved in the Purulia armsdrop case.

The Congress-led government now finds that there were no lapses in the purchase deal. The UPA’s “clean chit” to the deal was made public during the Parliament Session when, in reply to a question, minister of state for home affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal denied any such purchase. In a written reply to the question in the Lok Sabha on July 20, Jaiswal clearly said no such purchase was made from a Bulgarian firm, which procures arms from international gunners and has links to agencies behind the Purulia armsdrop case, by overlooking the tender offer, which was 25 per cent cheaper.

The NDA government had responded similarly when the Congress made the allegation.

An official release of the then government had said, “A high-level technical team was fully satisfied with the production facilities in Bulgaria and also the quality of the rifles after putting them through firing tests. After this satisfactory inspection by the technical team, clearance was given for dispatch of the first lot of 27,000 AK-47 rifles for the Ministry of Home Affairs.”