The Hindu : Front Page : No ill will, says Shivraj Patil

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Sunday, Jul 04, 2004

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Front Page

No ill will, says Shivraj Patil

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI, JULY 3. The Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, today asserted that the Government's decision to dismiss the Governors of Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat and Haryana was guided by a logic that included their ideology, past actions and an assessment of a situation the Government anticipated.

"The judgment is ours," Mr. Patil told a news conference and said the dismissals were not directed against individuals.

He said the Government removed those Governors it thought it could not get along with. It also went into past happenings, as in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, though he did not spell out what these were. "We took precautionary measures where we felt there could be a problem," Mr. Patil said.

While the Government wanted to take everyone along, some did not want to go along. He was against discussing or debating issues concerning a high office like that of Governor. "There is no (durbhav) ill will in our action."

Mr. Patil rejected the suggestion by the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, that the United Progressive Alliance owed an apology to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and insisted that that he had not named any organisation or identified any ideology (to which the removed Governors may have subscribed) as the reason for the removal of the Governors.

He said the Opposition leaders who were now questioning the move on the ground that it affected the federal structure of the Constitution should remember that some of them were members of the Government in 1977 when nine elected governments were dismissed in a single stroke. Mr. Patil's obvious reference was to both Mr. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, who were Ministers in the Janata Party Government of Morarji Desai.

In an apparent reference to the BJP leaders, he said that some of them had said earlier that the Governors should go with the change of government. "The Governors are not elected representatives," he pointed out.

Commenting on other issues, he said the Government was planning to bring a Bill in the budget session of Parliament to repeal the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act and his Ministry was drafting a model law to tackle communal violence, a promise made by the UPA in the Common Minimum Programme.

The Government was taking steps to revive the "virtually non-existent or defunct" National Integration Council, a forum where elected representatives of the Centre and the States, along with social workers, organisations and others, worked for national integration.

On talks with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and the demand that these be held at the highest level, Mr. Patil said the Government was "willing." But for that to happen the ground would have to be prepared, beginning with official-level talks. "Let the stage come. None in the Government will refuse to discuss with citizens of India."

As regards the talks with the banned Peoples War, Mr. Patil said that for now it was left to the States, and Andhra Pradesh had already taken the lead.

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