National Democratic Alliance

Press Release issued on December 9, 2004

Leaders of the constituent parties of the National Democratic Alliance met this morning and passed the following resolution. Former Prime Minister and NDA Chairman, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, NDA Convenor Shri George Fernandes, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Shri L.K. Advani and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Shri Jaswant Singh were present.

The National Democratic Alliance takes strong exception to the profusion of advertisements released by State Governments led by the Congress party in newspapers all over the country today eulogizing Smt, Sonia Gandhi on her birthday. Apart from wasting a lot of tax payers' money, this sycophantic advertisement blitz constitutes gross political impropriety. Smt. Gandhi holding the position of the Chairperson of the National Advisory Council cannot legitimize this patent misuse of government resources for seeking political mileage.

The Congress party is free to take out advertisements at its own expense to celebrate the birthday of its party president. However, Congress led state governments have no Justification whatsoever for doing so.

Leaders who attended the meeting

BJP
Shri Vijay Kumar Malhotra
Smt. Sushma Swaraj
Shri Ananth Kumar
Shri Sushil Modi
Shri S.S. Ahluwalia
Shri Santosh Gangwar

JD (U)
Shri Nitish Kumar
Shri Prabhunath Singh

Shiv Sena
Shri Ananth Geete

BJD
Shri B.K. Tripathi
Shri J. Panda

Trinamool Congress
Shri Dinesh Trivedi

Akali Dal
Shri S.S. Dhindsa

Congress (Mani)
Shri P.K. Thomas

Telugu Desam (Supporting party)
Smt. Vanga Geeta