HVK Archives: Persona non-grata
Persona non-grata - Mid - Day
Narendra kaushik
()
March 16, 1998
Title: Persona non-grata
Author: Narendra kaushik
Publication: Mid - Day
Date: March 16, 1998
If there is one person who the Bharatiya Janata Party would wish
to keep at an arm's length, it is Janata Party chieftain
Subramanian Swamy. Swamy is known to change colours faster than a
chameleon. True to form, the former finance minister on Sunday
morning lashed out at Ramakrishna Hegde telling him ot to
advise other partner of the BJP but in the evening changed tack
and refused to respond to Hegde's statement that the delay on the
part of Jayalalitha in confirming her support was n
embarrassment and a setback to the BJP.
While talking to MID-DAY, Swamy railed against Hegde for the
latter's misbehaviour towards AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha during
her participation in a BJP allies meeting in the capital. He
asked Hegde to ender an apology to Jayalalitha on account of
his misbehavior towards her. Hegde's Lok Shakti became the
butt of many jokes which flew out of Swamy's throat. Even if
Jayalalitha asked for the portfolios, it was on behalf of 27 Mps
and not on behalf of a microscopic party like Hegde's Lok
Shakti, Swamy thundered.
The Janata Party chief asserted that Hegde owed an explanation as
to where he heard Jayalalitha demanding a specific portfolio
for a specific person from the BJP leaders. He reasoned that the
AIADMK supremo would not have asked the BJP leaders for
portfolios in the presence of Hegde. The economics professor also
flayed the BJP's national agenda on the grounds that despite
being about economic issues, the agenda has all non-economic
issues.
In an interview to a TV channel, Hegde had claimed that
Jayalalitha had demanded a specific portfolio for a specific
person from the BJP leaders.
When asked whether the portfolio was for Subramanian Swamy, the
Lok Shakti chief had asserted that he thought so.
Interestingly, when former finance minister and senior BJP leader
Jaswant Singh was hammering out a settlement with the AIADMK
chief, Swamy was in Delhi but the moment, he got to know of the
agreement, he flew to Chennai. A BJP leader could be heard
telling his colleague in the party office that Swamy might try to
create more problems in the way of Atal Behari Vajpayee's
takeover.
BJP spokesperson Venkaiah Naidu however, assured that the
misunderstanding between Jayalalitha and Hegde had been ironed
out.
He asserted that the distribution of portfolios was the
prerogative of the Prime Minister and it would be settled after
discussions with the coalition partners.
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