Wily Bjp Springs To Presidents Defence

In order to keep President KR Narayanan in good humour with an eye on the expected hung election verdict, the Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday strongly defended his intervention in the Uttar Pradesh imbroglio and criticised his detractors for accusing him leaking the communication between him and Prime Minister I K Gujral.

Some leaders of the non-BJP parties like CPM general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet and former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar had deplored the the leakage of Narayanans letter to Gujral. They also defended Bhandaris actions in the last week.

Springing to Narayanans defence, BJPs prime ministerial candidate Atal Behari Vajpayee yesterday said : As the guardian of the Constitution, the President has acted for its protection. As a constitutionalist, the President has acted as an elder statesman. As a true umpire of the system, he has displayed his no-nonsense character. The entire nation is with me when I say we are proud of you Mr Narayanan.

 

In his letter to Gujral, the President had reportedly mentioned the constitutional improprieties in Uttar Pradesh, Vajpayee pointed out. Taking a dig at Gujral, he said : When I failed to disturb the Prime Ministers evening walk, the President had tried to wake him from his slumber.

The campaign by a section of the United Front against the ethical and constitutionally valid intervention by the President was thus politically motivated, he said. About the leakage of the letter, Vajpayee held that the issue was not why the controversy had surfaced in the media. India being a democratic republic, every system must be transparent, he said.

Since it was not a sensitive issue related with the countrys security, there was nothing secret about the letter, party general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu said.