Author: Navhind Times Correspondent
Publications: The Navhind Times,
Panaji, Goa
Dated: February 28, 2001
In an unusual display of anger and
outrage, the Prime Minister, Mr. A B Vajpayee, today lambasted the opposition
on the floor of the Lok Sabha for belittling the efforts of the Keshubhai
Patel government in Gujarat in handling the serious problems arising out
of the devastating earthquake in the state.
The Prime Minister appeared to be
particularly peeved at the insinuation by the opposition parties and his
government at the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the
state had discriminated against Harijans and Muslims in distribution of
relief material.
The former Lok Sabha speaker, Mr.
Shivraj Patil's bid to assuage the Prime Minister, by saying that the idea
was not to cast aspersions against the government but only to bring to
the notice of all concerned what was being said on the ground, Mr. Vajpayee
flared up even more.
"It would have been alright if such
charges of discrimination were uttered once or twice, but what does this
constant refrain supposed to mean?" he asked.
Mr. Vajpayee went to the extent
of charging that the propaganda of discrimination was being carried out
"in a planned manner" from the very first day of the earthquake and it
had been picked up by the foreign press, damaging India's image.
The sight of the angry Prime Minister
prompted other senior government ministers, including the Home Minister,
Mr. L K Advani, to join issue and assert that the charges levelled against
the Gujarat government were totally baseless and an absolute injustice.
Asserting that "Gujarat sarkar ki
pramanikta par koyee ungli nahi utha sakta (Nobody can raise an accusing
finger at the sincerity of the Gujarat government)," both Mr. Vajpayee
and Mr. Advani pointed out that the Chief Minister had replied to the discrimination
charge at the all party meeting, saying that anybody who would have done
any discrimination had committed paap (sin) and that he would take action
if any specific instance were brought to his notice.
The anger and anguish of Mr. Vajpayee
and Mr. Advani only brought into focus what the Congress president and
Leader of the Opposition in the House, Ms Sonia Gandhi, told the agitated
BJP members on Monday that "the truth is going to rebound on you if you
were not prepared to listen to it."
Mr. Vajpayee's outburst during his
intervention at the fag end of the debate came so suddenly that the opposition
was too stunned for a while to grasp the import of his remarks about a
divided House even in the hour of crisis.
The leader of the Communist Party
of India-Marxist, Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, however, soon jumped to his feet
to assert that "everyone wants to meet the Gujarat disaster unitedly and
we are not divided on the subject."
The Samajwadi Party leader Mr. Mulayam
Singh Yadav cried that such remarks c oming from the Prime Minister would
send a wrong message that "we are opposed to relief measures."
An irrepressible Mr. Vajpayee, however,
asserted that the opposition had launched a tirade of allegations and affirmed
that there had been absolutely no discrimination and that all such charges
were baseless.