The Hindu : Advani asks Trinamool to stop asking for Central intervention

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 07, 2003

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Advani asks Trinamool to stop asking for Central intervention

By Our Special Correspondent

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, greeting the former Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, at the 103rd birth anniversary celebrations of the Jana Sangh founder, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, in Kolkata on Sunday. — AFP

Kolkata July 6. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today asked Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and other Opposition parties in West Bengal to concentrate on acquiring the trust of the people instead of harping on Central intervention in the State politics.

Visiting the Trinamool office, Mr. Advani asked that party and other Opposition parties to learn from how the BJP "painstakingly created a vast space for itself in national politics" before it "successfully" took on the Congress and started ruling the Centre.

Mr. Advani advised Ms. Banerjee, in a roundabout way to forsake the demand for President's rule in West Bengal and consolidate the alliance with the State BJP so that a broder people's movement could be built up to oust the ruling Communists from office.

Before Mr. Advani rose to deliver his address, Ms. Banerjee, Kolkata Municipal Corporation mayor, Subroto Mukherjee, and the Trinamool functionary Pankaj Banerjee, repeatedly called for Central intervention in Bengal politics as they felt that "democracy is dead in the State, opposition workers are getting killed and no institution is left uncorrupted".

Assails CPI(M) move

The Deputy Prime Minister said West Bengal's ruling communists should have participated in the birth anniversary celebration of the Jan Sangh founder, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, as ideology should not come in the way of honouring great sons of India.

Addressing the 103rd birth anniversary celebrations of S.P. Mukherjee at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, Mr. Advani said: "I would have been happy if the Marxists had participated in this solemn function.''

He said he failed to understand why the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the leader of West Bengal's ruling Left Front, would stay away from an occasion such as S.P. Mukherjee's birth anniversary celebration. "He was a great man whose conviction, dedication and sacrifice would always inspire people over time."

Also present on the dais were the former Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, West Bengal and Gujarat Governors, Ministers and a host of BJP leaders. The function was organised by the Central Minister, Tapan Sikdar, also member of the Syama Prasad Mukherjee Smarak Samity.

In a bid to show that the BJP 's ideology was not guided by narrow political considerations, Mr. Advani said that the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and he were determined to send a senior party leader to the funeral as well as the all-party condolence of E.M.S. Namboodiripad, when the news of his death reached them in 1998.

"Comrade E.M.S. Namboodiripad's commitment, dedication, discipline are things every Indian should try to follow. I myself represented my party on his death because he was a man I could not have stayed away from. He and the RSS founder, Keshav Hegdewar, both from the Congress, were two persons who had helped me shape my life,'' he said.

Mr.Advani later met the Ramakrishna Mission's head monk in Belur Math, cruised in the river Ganges, discussed matters relating to governance with the Bengal Chief Minister over lunch at Raj Bhavan, held meetings with the state BJP leaders and paid a visit to Trinamool Congress' office on his way to the airport.

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