BJP takes swipe at Cong CMs

The BJP today hit out at Congress Chief Ministers for what it called their ‘‘indiginified conduct.’’ BJP general secreta...

The BJP today hit out at Congress Chief Ministers for what it called their ‘‘indiginified conduct.’’ BJP general secretary and spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said S.M. Krishna, Amarinder Singh and Ajit Jogi, the Chief Ministers of Karnataka, Punjab and Chhattisgarh respectively, had failed to do justice to the high offices they occupied. They were all enjoying power, but were conducting themselves like Opposition leaders, he charged.

Naqvi pointed out that the padayatra undertaken by Krishna on the Cauvery issue was unwarranted. It did not behove a CM to take to a road-side protest. After all, the directive to Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu had come from the highest court. If Krishna felt aggrieved by the Supreme Court verdict, he could explore legal avenues to seek a remedy.

Since he occupied a constitutional post, it did not behove him to abdicate his responsibility and go on a protest march. This sort of protest by one constitutional authority against another was totally undesireable and was nothing short of a political drama, he said.

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When asked if the BJP favoured invocation of Article 356 to dismiss the Krishna government in deference to the demand made by Tamil Nadu CM J. Jayalalithaa, he said: ‘‘We have not studied it yet. We will respond after studying it.’’

Referring to Amarinder Singh, he said that the Punjab Chief Minister had not covered himself with glory by sitting on a dharna on the paddy support price issue here.

Jogi, the BJP spokesman pointed out, had chosen to court arrest on the support price issue, rather than meeting the Prime Minister when he got an appointment with A.B. Vajpayee. This showed he was more interested in courting arrest rather than meeting the PM, he said.

Regarding the fate of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, he said: ‘‘It is past the deadliine of October 6 and he is still the Chief Minister. He will be indeed the CM after the polls too. There is no constitutional break-down either.’’

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When asked about the comments of VHP Vice-President Giriraj Kishore that Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani were two sides of the same coin, Naqvi said: ‘‘The VHP is an independent organisation. It can make its own observations. There is no need for our comments.’’

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