Cong. lambasted for 'disrupting' Parliament work

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI, DEC. 16. The Union Minister for Rural Development, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu, today lambasted the Congress(I) and other Opposition parties, for disrupting the work of Parliament and bringing to centrestage the Ayodhya issue once again.

Inaugurating the two-day executive committee meeting of the Karnataka BJP here, Mr. Naidu said the Congress(I) was so bereft of issues that it chose to harp on the Ayodhya issue. While the country remained free from tension despite all the apprehensions raised over the anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Congress(I) chose to create tension within Parliament. Ultimately, nothing happened, since it boomeranged on the party which was ``primarily responsible for the issue catching the public attention,'' Mr. Naidu said. It was indisputable that the Ayodhya issue was quite dear to the BJP. But the NDA Government, led by Mr. A.B.Vajpayee, was committed to implement the national agenda for governance. There was nothing objectionable in whatever the Prime Minister had said on the need to resolve the Ayodhya issue through mutual discussions or as per the court's verdict, on which the Opposition needlessly attempted to raise a bogey of controversy, Mr. Naidu said.

The Congress(I) had raised the issue after unsuccessfully trying to destabilise the Vajpayee Government. The performance of the Government on various fronts had also exposed the hollowness of the oft repeated criticism that the BJP had only a single point agenda and had no plan of action for governance.

Mr. Naidu said that now the roles had been reversed. It was not the BJP which had a single point agenda, but the Congress(I) and that was why the Ayodhya issue was raised by that party, he said.

What was more reprehensible was the Congress(I) was reneging on not disturbing the question hour in Parliament. The question hour, it had been agreed at an all-party meeting, should remain undisturbed. The Congress(I) behaved like a fish out of water when out of power, he said, while it was not so in the case of BJP, which knew how to wait for the power.

He said he would like to know how the Congress(I) would defend the late Rajiv Gandhi, who was instrumental in unlocking the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir complex, and Mr. Narasimha Rao, who had said that the temple would be reconstructed there.

The BJP leader told the party cadres that they should have a clear idea of whatever was being done by the BJP-led Government. It was their duty to highlight the achievements of the Union Government and talk about the ``failure'' of the Congress(I) Government in Karnataka.

Many schemes implemented in rural areas, were funded by the Centre and it should be the endeavour of the party cadres to tell the people from where the funds had come, he said.

Referring to the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, calling for accountability on part of the bureaucracy, Mr. Naidu said accountability had to start at the political level, and the bureaucracy would follow suit.

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Section  : Southern States
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