NEW DELHI, January 23: The Janata Dal (JD) today defended Prime Minister I K Gujral's sharing a platform with the Akali Dal in Jalandhar yesterday, saying that the meeting he addressed was a ``rally of the masses of Punjab'' and not of any party.At the party's briefing, JD spokesperson Mohan Prakash said that it was natural that whenever the Prime Minister visited a particular state, the Chief Minister, even if he belongs to a different party, would personally welcome him.
``The rally Gujral addressed was not organised by the Akali Dal. If people say that no prime minister had done as much as Gujral had done for the State, why should we oppose them?'' he said. The Prime Minister's campaign was a joint one of the Janata Dal and the Left parties, he added.
Prakash denied that there was any unhappiness in the United Front (UF) about Gujral's participation in the Jalandhar rally. Asked to react to Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh's criticism of Gujral's sharing the dais with the Akalis, he
remarked: ``Amar Singh is a great man. I don't want to comment against him.''
Asked for the party's reaction to West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu's statement that he was prepared to become a candidate for prime ministership if the UF came to power and if his party, the CPI(M), allowed him to do so, Prakash said that there were never any problems of leadership in the UF.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
