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Congress, Communists creating roadblocks: Vajpayee

By Malabika Bhattacharya

KOLKATA, MAY 4. The Congress and the Communists are inseparable as their main objective is to prevent the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) from assuming office, the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said here today.

Addressing an election rally, Mr. Vajpayee said the Leftists, especially the CPI (M), were making every possible attempt to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA from gaining the requisite numbers to form a government at the Centre.

"The Congress and the Communists are two sides of the same coin," Mr. Vajpayee said. "They are now creating roadblocks so that the NDA cannot come to office."

Mr. Vajpayee said the NDA Government had proved itself in the past few years by getting the country out of the financial crisis by increasing the foreign exchange reserves, controlling inflation, initiating welfare measures for the poor and improving relations with the neighbours, especially Pakistan.

"We have shown the world that we can run a coalition well on the basis of a common minimum programme," he said.

The Communists, Mr. Vajpayee said, were not in a position to criticise the BJP as they had failed to grow out of West Bengal and Tripura. Even in Kerala, the Leftists were "getting weaker by the day." "Their end is drawing closer in Kerala," he claimed.

Also present on the dais were the Trinamool Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee, P.A. Sangma and the Trinamool-BJP combine's candidates for Kolkata, Jadavpur and Dumdum.

It was unfortunate that the Congress and the Leftists were busy charging the BJP-led NDA with destroying the country. "Is it true?" he asked. "Or are we taking the country on the road to progress?"

The Communists, he said, were not able to tolerate a party such as the BJP which believed in retaining India's culture. It was unfortunate that the Congress had joined hands with them.

Mr. Vajpayee dwelt at length on the NDA Government's attempts to improve relations with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as well as its efforts to keep the country united. "I am an MP for 40 years now. I was in the Opposition earlier. Now I am in the Government. How can I keep quiet seeing India being destroyed? We are ready to face any threats from any quarters. The Opposition parties are wrong in heaping charges on us." He warned the CPI(M) that unless it changed its views and its style of functioning, it would bring about its own destruction.

The CPI(M) was wrong in putting the communal label on the BJP. The party, he said, believed in Hindu-Muslim unity, tried to protect the rights of both communities and strove hard to maintain peace between them.

The Prime Minister said the CPI(M) itself was intolerant of those who held different views. A few days ago, the Himayat Committee had held a meeting in Kolkata to propagate the views of the BJP on Muslims. "It was the CPI (M) which would not allow the meeting," he said.

He charged the CPI (M) with "rigging" elections in Bengal. It resorted to all sorts of electoral malpractices and that was one reason it would not venture to grow roots elsewhere in the country.

"These three States of Bengal, Tripura and Kerala are known grounds and they realise that it would not be easy for it to manipulate elections elsewhere," he said.

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