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Journalism of Courage
The Centre is actively considering the Election Commission’s request to bring about an ordinance banning pre-election survey, said Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani while addressing the media on the second and final day of the Bihar leg of his Bharat Uday Yatra today. Advani called upon the gathered public to overthrow the ‘‘ineffective and incompetent’’ Rabri Devi government.
He asked them to ‘‘use the Lok Sabha elections as an opportunity to warn the state government that it change itself or the public will change it in the next elections’’. Advani told election rallies at Masaurhi and extremist-hit Jehanabad that the turn out at the rallies reflects people’s indignation against the state government which has failed to deliver the goods.
The state government should change its approach and work for development otherwise people will throw it out, he added. He urged the people to vote for NDA candidates to ensure their victory in all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and to help the return of Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee for making India a developed nation.
He, however, refused to comment on speculations over the number of seats that the NDA or BJP may get in the elections.
On the issue of imposing President’s Rule in Bihar, the Deputy PM said: ‘‘Bad governance is not a sufficient condition for using Article 356…Whatever we will do, will be as per the Constitutional provisions.’’
The Deputy Prime Minister also expressed his surprise over the Hurriyat move to boycott the elections but added that they are ‘‘under various kinds of pressures…Last time when I met them, they did not seem to be moving in this direction,’’ he added.
Responding to a question on whether he considered Congress president Sonia Gandhi an Indian, the Deputy PM said: ‘‘We never said she is not an Indian. She is an Indian, but with foreign origin.’’
