The Hindu : Karnataka News : BJP to join all-party team, but wants special session

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 08, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

BJP to join all-party team, but wants special session

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, APRIL 7. In what could be termed a reversal of its earlier decision, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to join the all-party delegation to be led by the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to complain against the "illegal" irrigation projects taken up by the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Announcing this to presspersons, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, D.H. Shankaramurthy, maintained that the Government should convene a brief special session of the legislature to discuss the illegal projects and get a unanimous resolution passed. The resolution will help the Chief Minister convince the Prime Minister that the entire State supports him in opposing the projects, he and K. Balakrishna Bhat, MLC, said. Mr. Shankaramurthy said the BJP General Secretary, H.N. Ananth Kumar, had not placed any condition for the party to join the delegation.

The BJP, he said, will cooperate with the Government in fighting any threat to the interests of the people, whether it is land, water or language. He did not reply to the question why the BJP was silent when the then Telugu Desam Party, part of the National Democratic Alliance, did the groundwork for the illegal irrigation projects although it knew that they would affect Karnataka.

Gujarat riots

About his statement on the Gujarat violence, Mr. Shankaramurthy said the riots should not be seen in isolation. The Gujarat violence should be viewed along with incidents such as massacre of Sikhs immediately after the assassination of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, in Delhi in October 1984. The mass killing and exodus of Hindus from Kashmir following terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir should also be kept in mind when speaking about the Gujarat violence, which followed the burning of a train carrying passengers in Godhra.

On the temple-masjid issue, he said a Ram temple should be built in Ayodhya. He defended the demolition of the masjid, and said it was a symbol of foreign annexation and oppression.

Mr. Shankaramurthy said the BJP has launched several programmes till December 31 to mark its silver jubilee.

He criticised the national mourning for Pope John Paul II, who, he said, was a religious head of only the Roman Catholics.

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