Congress, Cpm Should Join Uf Govt: Moopanar

Tamil Manila Congress (TMC) president G.K. Moopanar has said he still felt the Congress and the CPI(M) should join the United Front government to ensure stability at the Centre.

I have already done what I could do to persuade the two parties to join the Centre, Moopanar told newsmen here yesterday.

However, he ruled out any chances of a TMC merger with the Congress. We are friends, but my party is not ready for a merger, he stressed.

The TMC president said he was satisfied with the performance of the coalition government at the Centre and hoped the government would complete its full term. Coalition is a trial which would bring out a better combination, he said. But it was not easy to work with 13 to 14 parties, he admitted adding that it was all the more difficult because the coalition had come into existence after the elections and not before it.

Neither the political parties nor the MPs wanted an election. The coalition had to continue. It was very difficult but we will have to manage, he said.

Refusing to be drawn into the debate of who was the better prime minister, I.K. Gujral or H.D. Deve Gowda, the TMC chief said both were good in their own ways.

On the criticism of finance minister P. Chidambaram, a TMC minister, by the Left parties for hiking petroleum prices, Moopanar said it was unfair to fault the finance minister alone as it was the Union Cabinet which had taken the decision to hike petroleum prices. Chidambaram was just one minister in the Cabinet, he said. He added that although the Centre had hiked petroleum prices no past burden had been passed on to the people.

Asked if his party would get more representation in the Union Cabinet during its reported expansion shortly, Moopanar said it was entirely the Prime Ministers prerogative to pick his ministers.