Govts Fall Will Hit N-E Peace Initiative: Gupta

The Deve Gowda governments initiatives in the north-east had begun to bear fruit but the fall of this government would give insurgents in that area a fillip, outgoing home minister Indrajit Gupta told the Lok Sabha.

He revealed that, after India gave Bangladesh Ganga water, the Bangladesh government had assured at the highest level that the camps of north-eastern insurgent groups there would be wound up. Gupta hit out at Congress President Sitaram Kesri, demanding that Congress members tell the house why he had withdrawn the partys support to the UF. He revealed that Kesri had been to meet him three days earlier to say that he only wanted the UF to change its leader.He said he had asked Kesari about reports that he was emrboilled in criminal charges but Kesari had dismissed these reports as rumour. Gupta said he could understand differences on policies but none had been mentioned by Congress speakers, except Priya Ranjan Das Munshi.

 

Point that the prime minister had failed to consolidate the forces of secularism.

Calling the Congress destabilisers and wreckers, Gupta told the Congress that it would be taught a lesson by the people when it went back for fresh elections. He recalled that he had said earlier that the people would do something to the Congress if it withdrew support to the UF. He had earlier said that people would beat Congress men with shoes.

Gupta added that people would target the political system if politicians went back every few months to ask for votes again. The people are not our slaves, he said.