archive: Sonia foreign origin will be main poll plank: PM
Sonia foreign origin will be main poll plank: PM
P R Ramesh
The Economic Times
May 22, 1999
Title: Sonia foreign origin will be main poll plank: PM
Author: P R Ramesh
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: May 22, 1999
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today took off the gloves to
launch a major offensive against the Congress which is facing
convulsions over its leadership's resolve to crush any challenge to
its authority.
Shedding his diffidence over placing the "swadeshi-videshi" debate -
which has now moved out of the Congress Working Committee -- the prime
minister said the issue can no longer be treated as an internal affair
of the Congress party.
Mr Vajpayee, who sought to project the issue as one that concerns the
health of democratic institutions like political parties, said the
Congress' response to it bordered on fascism. "The Congress has
suppressed the questions raised by Mr Sharad Pawar, Mr P A Sangma and
Mr Tariq Anwar with the desperate act of expulsion rather than
initiating a rational debate on it," the prime minister said.
He said the Congress' reflexes proved that "it has nothing but
contempt for internal democracy whose cornerstone is debate based on
freedom of thought and expression".
In an attempt to pin down the Congress over the vulnerability of its
leadership, the prime minister said the action against three senior
leaders manifested its inability to answer inconvenient questions.
"It smacks of fascism and deserves denunciation from all those who
hold democracy dear,' he said. Rejecting the charge of the Congress
establishment that the dissent was being inspired by the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), Mr Vajpayee said the allegation only goes to show
that they want to run away from a debate.
"The issues raised by Mr Pawar and his colleagues have been echoed by
important leaders of almost all political parties," said the prime
minister, hinting at the opposition raised by his two predecessors - V
P Singh and Chandrashekhar - to the candidature of Mrs Sonia Gandhi.
Against this backdrop, Mr Vajpayee must be sensing the right political
climate for placing the is-sue on top of the campaign agenda. While
his allies have already stepped up their campaign, friendly parties
like the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from Andhra Pradesh have made it
clear that the anti-Congress offensive will be pegged on Sonia
Gandhi's Italian origins. With the prime minister himself taking the
lead, the BJP is expected to carry out a full-scale offensive against
Mrs Gandhi, said political observers.
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