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No pressure to quit: Khurana

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, JUNE 29. The Rajasthan Governor, Madan Lal Khurana, made it eminently clear today that he was not in a mood to give up the gubernatorial post. The ruling Untied Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre should follow the precedence set by the previous National Democratic Alliance in the case of Governors, he said talking to newspersons at Raj Bhavan.

In his first formal interaction with the media after rumours broke out that the new Government at the Centre was pressurizing some of the Governors to resign, Mr.Khurana, who had made a trip to Delhi the previous day, said as such, no one had asked him to put in his papers.

Mr. Khurana apparently invited the journalists to brief them on the proposed move to introduce moral education in Rajasthan's universities. "I have been told that some of the Governors appointed during the tenure of the previous NDA Government received telephone calls to this effect. I have not either received any such call or did anyone from the Home Ministry ask me to resign,'' Mr.Khurana said.

The Governor volunteered to explain his sudden visit to Delhi the other day where he had met the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. "I would like to clarify here that my trip to Delhi had nothing to do with the current developments. A relative of mine in Delhi had passed away when I was in Mount Abu. I went to Delhi only to attend the `kriya' (ceremony for the dead),'' he revealed.

When an inquisitive media wanted to know what was he doing with Mr.Vajpayee for an hour or so in Delhi, Mr.Khurana said, "I hold Atalji in awe. He has been my childhood hero, my idol''. "It was Advaniji (L.K.Advani) who had met the Prime Minister and the President in connection with the Governors issue. I did not meet him (Mr.Advani) and you cannot say that I was in Delhi in that connection,'' he argued.

However, Mr.Khurana, who once seemed a reluctant occupant at Jaipur Raj Bhavan, was emphatic today that the new Government at the Centre cannot treat the post of Governors the way it wanted. "Only once in the past the Governors were changed after the change of power. The NDA Government did not do it,'' he said refusing to go further into the issue.

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