BJP journal accuses Narayanan of `politics’

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 17: After the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), it's the BJP's turn to criticise President K R Narayanan for having c...

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 17: After the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), it’s the BJP’s turn to criticise President K R Narayanan for having cautioned the Government against ordering a review of the Constitution.

An article entitled `Who is above politics’ published in the latest edition of BJP’s house magazine, BJP Today, refers to the President’s speech in the Central Hall of the Parliament on January 27 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Constitution and remarks that “to many in the audience the Rashtrapati’s exhortations appeared like a descent into politics”. The article, written under a psuedo-name Vidur, also questions the President’s “track record” in view of his directive to the Vajpayee Government in April, 1999 to seek a vote of confidence after the AIADMK had withdrawn support.

It was a Budget session and several finance-related bills had to be passed. If the Government had lost confidence of the Lok Sabha, it would have collapsed. “However, the Rashtrapati was impatient and asked Sri Atal Behari Vajpayee to immediately seek a vote of confidence. This gave the Opposition an opportunity to criticise, try and condemn the Government,” the article reads. Citing Narayanan’s decision to grant Sonia Gandhi time to “cajole more MPs” after she claimed support of 272 MPs but failed to produce them, the author says, “Little wonder that he was widely perceived as partial. The lamp of Congress was still burning in his heart”.

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“May we remind the President that the NDA led by the BJP entered the general elections last year with a manifesto which included a review of the Constitution. The people of India gave NDA a clear majority,” it added.

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