Vajpayee condemns Congress for defending Emergency

Vajpayee, who arrived here this morning to address a string of public meetings, issued a written statement which was distributed to reporters. In it, he expressed “shock” at the Congress’s defence of the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975. He said the fact that the Congress leadership had not issued a clarification after its official spokesman had justified the Emergency, showed that the party shared this view. The Emergency, Vajpayee said, was a blot on Indian democracy. It hadn’t been imposed because of a threat to the country, but because the court had threatened the party’s power. This indicated, he said, that the Congress wouldn’thesitate to repeat 1975.

He said the Congress was making a “grave mistake in believing that people had forgotten this dark chapter in modern Indian history”, when civil liberties were snatched away, the press was muzzled and the “entire country became a prison house.”

On the issue of price rise, Vajpayee said he had called a meeting of Chief Ministers on November 27. There was a suggestion, he said, to make the Essential Commodities Act stronger, so that it could be used whenever there was a shortage.

When asked to respond to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s charge that he was a “weak” Prime Minister, Vajpayee said, “I act, I don’t react.”Asked whether Home Minister L K Advani’s statements would help improve Indo-Pak relations, Vajpayee said that Advani hadn’t said anything which didn’t figure in the bilateral talks. He said that terrorism, infiltration of mercenaries, help to terrorists from across the border and the discovery of huge stocks of RDXeverything had been raised by New Delhi at thetalks.

On the composition of the National Security Council, Vajpayee said that he didn’t agree that the council has tried to marginalise the role of the three service chiefs. Their views were vital while formulating defence policy, he said.

On Romesh Sharma, Vajpayee said that the Congress was trying to give it a political twist. He said that he had information that the Congress planned to release a “forged poster” showing him with Delhi Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj and Sharma.