Cong. has to work more: Arjun Singh

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, MAY 11. The senior Congress leader, Mr. Arjun Singh, today said the verdict of the Assembly elections will not be moulded by any single issue like the Tehelka tapes but would reflect the cumulative impact of the ``wrongdoings'' of the BJP- led coalition Government at the Centre.

On whether or not Ms. Jayalalitha can be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu if her party gets a majority in the elections, Mr. Singh told newspersons at his residence here this morning that only conviction could debar a person from contesting an election whereas she was debarred from entering the poll fray not on legal grounds but on the basis of a notification issued by the Election Commission.

Asked if the Congress would improve its performance in the Assembly elections, Mr. Singh said the party would have to work more to get the people's trust. But one thing was certain. The party's consolidation had been on the right track under the leadership of the AICC president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi. ``We have to consolidate further. What is important is that we are moving on the right track,'' he added.

Mr. Singh said the BJP-led Government had failed to learn any lesson from the experiences of those countries that opened their door to the global economy much before India. ``We, on the contrary, have a situation where obviously under all kinds of influences everything has been done to advance by two years - the 2002 deadline fixed by World Trade Organisation (WTO) itself.''

Asked on the Centre's track-record on disinvestment, Mr. Singh said BALCO was only a symbol. Nobody was opposed to disinvestment and many projects, especially public sector units running up losses should be privatised.

Asked to spell out the biggest failure of the Prime Minister, he said, ``it is not he who has failed, but we have failed to judge what he really was''.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : Vincent George's wife gives up petrol pump
Next     : Laloo, Mishra may surrender on May 15