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PM asks Joshi to resume work

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI SEPT. 30. The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today returned to the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, his resignation letter and asked him to continue working, thus bringing to an end the episode that started on September 19. That day the Rae Bareli court gave an order that Dr. Joshi and six others would be chargesheeted in the Babri Masjid demolition case on October 10.

Mr. Vajpayee's decision came immediately after Dr. Joshi informed him that his criminal review petition challenging the Rae Bareli court order filed before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had been accepted and the proceedings in the lower court stayed till the final disposal of the petition.

"The Prime Minister congratulated me and told me he had not accepted my resignation. He also asked me to continue working as before... I accept with humility the decision of respected Prime Minister not to accept my letter of resignation from the Union Cabinet,'' Dr. Joshi told reporters later.

He also said the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, had telephoned him to congratulate him. He indicated that he would attend office tomorrow. Since September 19, Dr. Joshi has not been attending office.

Later, the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, said he welcomed the order of the higher court. "We are happy. The party has always been of the view that the case was political and must be fought politically and legally.'' He was confident that "justice'' would be done to all the party leaders.

The Uttar Pradesh State unit president, Vinay Katiyar, and the BJP chief ministerial candidate in Madhya Pradesh, Uma Bharti, are also to be chargesheeted and today Mr. Naidu advised them also to file review petitions. He reiterated the party stand that even if chargesheeted there was no need for them to resign.

However, Dr. Joshi, said: "I am always firm on this: if chargesheeted, I will resign.'' Explaining his position further, he said: "the very word `rajniti' (politics) had two parts which suggested that `raj' (governance) must go hand in hand with `niti' (principles or ethics)... there should be balance, if there was `raj' without `niti', it would deteriorate into `jungle raj'.'' Over the last 10 days people had congratulated him for taking the "right decision," he added.

He said this in response to a question on what he would do if after the final disposal of the review petition he were to be chargesheeted. He said the next hearing of the review petition had been fixed for November 4, and he was confident that the court would do the right thing. "And there is also the possibility of a review by the Supreme Court.''

The one concession Dr. Joshi did make to the "party stand'' was that in a statement he echoed its view that the demolition case was "politically motivated and it did not involve issues of criminal or moral turpitude.'' He dismissed all speculation in the media that he wanted the party president's position. "These are the days of the virtual world... the media takes over... where is the question, I am a Minister, I have been the party president.''

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