The Hindu : Kerala News : Withdraw action against all Congress leaders: Hassan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 20, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Withdraw action against all Congress leaders: Hassan

By Our Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE, APRIL 19. The Minister for Information and Parliamentary Affairs, M.M. Hassan, has said that the disciplinary action initiated against some of the Congress leaders in the State should be withdrawn.

Talking to reporters here today, he said that disciplinary action had not served any purpose to solve the problems in the party. The action taken against some leaders had been withdrawn as part of a compromise formula worked out between the warring factions before the finalisation of the candidate list, he added.

No logic could be attributed to taking disciplinary action against a few when many had violated party discipline. It was up to the Congress leadership to look into the fresh developments, Mr. Hassan said, when his attention was drawn to the case of the dissident Congress leaders, Saratchandra Prasad and Rajmohan Unnithan.

Mr. Hassan said that the United Democratic Front (UDF) would better its performance in the Lok Sabha elections. The `Navodhana yatra', to be led by the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, would be a success, he added.

Mr. Hassan said that isolated incidents of infighting would not affect the prospects of the UDF candidates.

"This is a democratic party and there is no difference of opinion between the leaders", he said. The various groups functioned because of the existence of the party. But the groups should not exceed their limits, he said.

He said that the development activities undertaken by the UDF Government in sectors such as Information Technology had failed to gain publicity owing to political controversy in the last three years. Focus should be on development programmes in the next two years, he said. Asked whether the CPI(M) was an obsolete party, he said that it had turned hi-tech by launching its own television channel, but still lacked a vision for development. The CPI(M)'s attitude was anti-development when out of power and pro-development when in power. Although that party had made contributions to social development, its performance had been disappointing on the economic front, Mr. Hassan added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala