VP says PM’s statements `diversionary tactics’

dwellers in recent months, said the Government had no answer for the questions being raised about suicide of farmers and the hardships being faced by the poor. “NDA partners like Chandrababu Naidu and M Karunanidhi, who we do not consider as communal, should now realise what the BJP is up to. Ultimately they will have to grapple with the BJP on the question of its ideology.”

Urging Opposition parties not to let go of their fight on the economic issues, Singh said yesterday: “The BJP wants the fight to be on their ground — that is the Ram Janmabhoomi. Opposition parties should fight on their own ground, that is, on the economic issues.”

As for the recreation of the Third Front, Singh said that the Left parties, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and H D Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal(S) were the only parties not aligned either with the BJP or the Congress. They could become the focal point of a Third Front, but this might happen only after elections in Uttar Pradesh, he added.