HVK Archives: BJP uses Barnala to tap DMK for support
BJP uses Barnala to tap DMK for support - The Business Standard
Political Bureau
()
April 28, 1998
Title: BJP uses Barnala to tap DMK for support
Author: Political Bureau
Publication: The Business Standard
Date: April 28, 1998
Surjit Singh Barnala, Union minister for food and civil supplies,
has emerged as the key player in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee
government's contingency plan to make up for potential loss of
support of the unpredictable AIADMK leader, J Jayalalitha.
Barnala is said to be working on the AIADMK's arch rival, the
DMK, which has six members in the Lok Sabha.
The efforts are being made with an eye on the forthcoming budget
session of Parliament from May 27.
The AIADMK has 18 MPs and leads the 27-member alliance comprising
parties from Tamil Nadu. The BJP has already succeeded in driving
a wedge within the alliance which is no longer a cohesive group
under Jayalalitha's leadership as was evident just after the
elections. Differences has cropped up on the issue of dismissing
the DMK government.
Barnala, who had a respectable stint as the Tamil Nadu Governor
in the early Nineties, is said to enjoy a good rapport with both
the major Dravidian groups in the state. He was instrumental in
enlisting the AIADMK's support to the BJP's alliance but has now
opened channels with DMK in the changed circumstances.
BJP sources said the DMK with six MPs may not fully compensate
for the loss of 18 MPs of the AIADMK but the shortfall would be
made up by engineering splits in parties like the 17-member
Rashtriya Janata Dal. But securing the DMK's support would be
largely symbolic, as it would mean yet another United Front
constituent breaking away.
everal of the smaller parties in the AIADMK-led alliance have
close ties with DMK and its chief M Karunanidhi. Jayalalitha's
only committed ally in the coalition is Subramaniam Swamy. Others
are against the blanket dismissal of the DMK government, her main
demand, Even within the AIADMK some MP are not too happy with the
demand either, a senior minister said.
Karunanidhi has already made conciliatory gestures towards
Vajpayee, who has ruled out any move to invoke Article 356 in the
case of the Tamil Nadu. The BJP's new ally, N Chandrababu Naidu
of the Telugu Desam, is also opposed to the dismissal of the DMK
government.
Meanwhile, in the latest round of sparing, the DMK has
embarrassed Jayalalitha by publicising a copy of the BJP's report
prepared in 1995, which alleged that the Al-Umma, now an outlawed
fundamentalist outfit, enjoyed the AIADMKs support.
Incensed by the action, Jayalalitha yesterday said the release of
the report only showed that arunanidhi is frantic to clutch at
least a straw to cover up his mistake. That is why he has
unearthed this report from the garbage of old papers and released
it. We can do nothing else but pity him.
The report was prepared by a team led by BJP vice-president
Sikandar Bakht after the blasts in the RSS office in Chennai in
1903.
Jayalalitha said releasing the report now by Karunanidhi was an
attempt to divert the issue and could not be a remedy to the
"present Himalayan blunder" of the DMK government in failing to
take suitable steps despite getting prior information about the
Coimbatore blasts.
As per the report circulated last week to MLAs, Al-Umma enjoyed
the support of various political parties, including AIADMK
leaders.
Jayalalitha said the statement that her party gave support to
Islamic extremists, as alleged in the BJP's report was made
"without realising the true position."
Claiming that she had ordered a CBI probe into the RSS office
blast incident, she said it was well-known that fundamentalist
and extremist organisations like Al-Umma and Jihad committee had
included her name in their 'hit-list' because of her firm action
to put down communal extremists.
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