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PM’s
barb: Trinamool now CPI-M’s ‘C’ team
Attacks former
ally for desertion, says Cong in league with ULFA
Subrata Nagchoudhury & Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Bulbulchandi (Malda)/ Guwahati, May 5:
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today shifted into election
mode by criticising his former ally, Mamata Banerjee, in West Bengal
for deserting the NDA and accusing the Congress in Assam of being
hand in glove with ULFA to capture power.
Speaking at
an election rally in Malda district, Vajpayee said Mamata’s
Trinamool Congress had become the ‘C’ team of the CPI(M)
after accusing the Congress of being the ‘B’ team. He
said the ‘B’ and ‘C’ team were now playing together
but didn’t utter Mamata’s name even once.
However, earlier
in Purnea he had told reporters that ‘‘Mamata Banerjee
has the habit of living in illusion and we can’t help it.’’
At the rally
in Malda district, the PM said: ‘‘Why the Trinamool Congress
left us is still unclear to me. It never tried to explain to us
why it had taken the decision.’’
But the tone and tenor of his speech was largely the same as Mamata’s
at her rallies. ‘‘The CPI(M) in Bengal has been given
enough time. There should now be a change in the state. And it is
you who can bring about this change. You have an opportunity,’’
he urged the crowd, reminding it that ‘‘things in Bengal
have gone from bad to worse under the Marxists. Bengal used to be
a progressive state and now it’s lagging behind.’’
Arguing that
Communism the world over had become irrelevant, he said there should
be a distinction between the party and the government. ‘‘The
public does not benefit if all the actions of a government are taken
keeping only the interest of the party in mind,’’ he said.
He said the Left and the Congress were opposing the BJP in Parliament
‘‘just for the heck of it’’.
Referring to
the disruption of parliamentary proceedings by the Congress, Vajpayee
said ‘‘we welcome opposition but they demanded my resignation
first...No amount of disruptions in Parliament would help topple
an elected government.’’
A large part
of Vajpayee’s speech however dwelt on serious issues, ranging
from economic reforms to lifting of import restrictions, grain stocks,
support price for agricultural produce etc. It was towards the end
of his speech that sparks of the famous Vajpayee humor were in evidence.
‘‘Some people have been asking me, ‘what is our stake
in this election?’ I told them ‘our function will be that
of a brake in a car. The brake, you all know, is a small part but
you can’t do without it if you are to drive it right.’’
Speaking at
a Press conference in Guwahati, the Prime Minister repeated home
minister L K Advani’s charge that the Congress had a nexus
with ULFA. ‘‘There are clear indications that the Congress
and the ULFA militants are hand in glove. This has become evident
from the fact that the Congress has not cleared its position on
the issue,’’ Vajpayee told a Press conference here this
evening. He, however, ruled out a formal inquiry into this, saying
an internal inquiry was already on and the findings would soon be
made public. Earlier, speaking at a rally jointly organised by the
AGP and the BJP at Judges’ Field, Vajpayee had pointed out
that the Congress was silent on the allegation. ‘‘It has
no voice to condemn the killings,’’ he added.
‘‘The
Congress has no respect for democratic norms and votes. That is
why it is resorting to undemocratic methods. It is playing dirty
politics to capture power,’’ the PM alleged, observing
that whenever the party was out of power it got restive.
Describing the Assam elections as a battle between ballots and bullets,
the PM asked the people to ensure the victory of the ballots at
a rally which had a low turnout. He ruled out a unilateral ceasefire
against ULFA, pointing out that ULFA, unlike the other militant
groups, wasn’t talking to the Government.
He held Congress
responsible for backwardness of Assam. ‘‘It is nature’s
law that the Congress should go. Look how the number of states ruled
by Congress is getting lesser day by day,’’ he said.
He said he was
optimistic about the AGP-BJP alliance coming to power, describing
the two as natural allies. ‘‘There aren’t too many
differences between the two,’’ he claimed.
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