Author: Yogesh Naik
Publication: Mid-Day
Date: May 22, 2004
URL: http://ww1.mid-day.com/news/nation/2004/may/83876.htm
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief
Laloo Prasad Yadav has rattled the Congress with a sensational demand.
He wants Prime Minister-designate
Dr Manmohan Singh to give up the monthly pension of Rs 2.5 lakh that he
gets from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It was this point in Laloo's list
of demands that made Congress leader Kapil Sibal declare last evening that
some of the RJD leader's suggestions were "sensitive to the process of
government formation," though he denied they were "conditions" for RJD
support.
The demand is at the centre of Laloo's
pressure tactics to get the Home, Railway and Coal portfolios and also
a Rs 37,000 crore package for Bihar in the Five Year Plan.
"If Manmohan has to be PM of India,
he must stop getting pension from an international agency," a source close
to Laloo said.
Dr Singh was Alternate Governor
for India on the IMF's Board of Governors from 1982 to 1985 and Governor
for India on the IMF Board of Governors and the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development from 1991 to 1995.
The demand could turn out to be
a sensitive one because it could be taken up strongly by the Left, which
is staunchly opposed to the IMF.
The Congress relies heavily on the
61-MP-strong Left for the government's formation and stability.
Laloo may also be able to reinforce
his party's socialist credentials by pressing this demand.
Laloo had left New Delhi with some
dejection on Thursday after his demand for the Home Ministry was rejected
by the Congress.
Immediately after his return to
Delhi yesterday, he held a series of meetings with Manmohan Singh and other
senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, R K Dhawan and Kapil
Sibal as also NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
Sibal said: "Yadav is participating
in the process of formation of a Congress-led alliance government and has
suggested certain things, which will be conveyed to party president Sonia
Gandhi."
