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Journalism of Courage
After placing every issue from Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani’s statements to the RSS not being part of the freedom movement under its scanner yesterday, the Congress today concentrated its attack on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Party spokesperson Kapil Sibal said while the PM is claiming all the credit for turning India into a nuclear state, it was Vajpayee who had opposed the resumption of the nuclear programme in 1979.
It was Indira Gandhi and the preparations made prior to 1974 that helped India emerged as a nuclear power, Sibal told reporters here. ‘‘If Vajpayee had his way, India would never have continued with its nuclear programme,’’ he said.
Sibal said the nuclear issue had been referred to the Cabinet committee on political affairs in 1979. Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram, H.M. Patel and Vajpayee were members of this committee headed by then Prime Minister Morarji Desai. The issue got majority vote but then foreign affairs minister Vajpayee had voted against it.
Sibal said Vajpayee must explain to the country why he had voted against restarting India’s nuclear programme. He added that the credit goes to the Congress for taking the nuclear programme ahead.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi also fired salvos at Vajpayee, accusing him of being against the minority community. He quoted from Vajpayee’s writings and speeches from the 1970s and alleged that the PM had even blamed Muslims for every riot. Vajpayee had remarked that the Muslim community does not wish to integrate with the mainstream, Singhvi added.
