Abdullah Hints Laloo Should Quit

If he had been faced with a criminal charge, he would have resigned on the first day, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah told reporters yesterday. He was replying to a question on Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasads conduct at a meet the press programme at the Press Club of India.

He added, though, that Laloo Prasad was the leader of a major party and had received substantial support from the people, and had to decide for himself what he should do in the circumstances.

Abdullah spoke of his intention to come to the Centre, though he added that he would only shift when his colleagues in his state told him he had done enough there.

He clearly indicated, though, that the United front should have considered him for the top job at the Centre when HD Deve Gowda was replaced last month. When the crisis was here, I should have been the Prime Minister of India, he said, adding that this would sent excellent signals to the people of his state.

Abdullah, whose National Conference is a constituent of the United Front coalition, said he had advised the Front to go to the people after the Congress withdrew its support. He spoke of his bitter memories of how Gowda had had to go.

He added that Mr Gujral is not one of those who is going to bend and bow before anyone and that, if the Congress were to withdraw its support again, he hoped the UF would decide to go to the people.

He pleaded for transparency with regard to the various politically sensitive scandals. If we try to hide anything from the people, the people will throw the United Front into the gutter. No probe should therefore be stopped, nor should the government take sides.

Instead, the Front should go to the people with the facts.

On the other hand, he said there should be no witch-hunt, he said. Many of the current cases had been instituted when the Congress was in power and the law should be allowed to take its course.