Wednesday 30 April 2008

BJP asks India to mediate between Sri Lanka and LTTE

CHENNAI, Tuesday- (PTI)

Asking the Centre to play a 'major role' to bring both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE to the negotiating table, the BJP today said the recent meeting between Priyanka Vadhra and Nalini, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case, was done with a 'motif'.

"The Indian Government should play a major role to bring both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Government to the negotiating table," BJP president Rajnath Singh told reporters here. Reacting to Priyanka's highly publicised visit to the Vellore Central Prison on March 19 to meet Nalini, he said "Her visit to see Nalini was a diplomatic tactic used by the Congress” He, however, did not elaborate.

Singh also termed as a "personal opinion" the former national security advisor Brajesh Mishra's statement that he preferred India to sign the nuclear deal with the US. The BJP had not changed its stand of opposing the agreement.

Stating that BJP favoured implementation of the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project without affecting the Ram Sethu (Adam's Bridge) in the Palk Straits, he appealed to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunandihi to re-align the project so as to preserve it.

Singh also demanded a white paper on inflation and accused the UPA Government of total failure to curb the rising inflation.

He said BJP rejected Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's stand that inflation was a global phenomenon as the rate of inflation in the US was three per cent and four per cent in other developing countries.

Charging the UPA Government with total failure to curb the rising inflation, Singh said "The UPA should seek advice from the NDA as it had successfully tackled the inflation. The NDA government had built huge rice and wheat stocks during its regime to tackle inflation and shortages."

On the Rs 60,000 crore agricultural loan waiver scheme, he said "the loan waiver is a disaster. He (Chidambaram) is yet to tell the country from where he will get the money to accomplish the waiver. It will not benefit majority of the farmers who had borrowed money from private money lenders."

He also asked the Centre to come out with a report on the progress of investigation by the Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), probing the conspiracy angle in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case.

On West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's statement that the BJP and the Congress were out to divide the country albeit in different ways, he said "the Communists make ironical statements. If the Congress is dividing the country, how come they are supporting the Congress to run the government."

He alleged that the UPA government had become more anti-dalit and anti-poor by totally failing to come out with welfare measures for the Scheduled Castes.

He said the BJP welcomed the Supreme Court's verdict on exclusion of creamy layer from OBC reservation to educational institutions.

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