BJP TODAY

September 16--30, 2004 - Vol. 13, No. 18

P. M. should now drop tainted Ministers
Uma Bharati set exemplary standard in public life
- Venkaiah Naidu

Advising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to drop the tainted ministers from his cabinet at least now After the honourable release of Uma Bharati, BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sept 7, said at Banglore that - this could save the UPA government further disgrace.

The following is the text of his statement:

Truth and justice have won and pseudo secular vendetta has been defeated with the release of Sushri Uma Bharati. The image of the Congress government in Karnataka remote controlled by the Congress high command at the center lies in tatters. Uma Bharati has set an exemplary standard in public life, even though the case against her was patently false and politically motivated. She was a popular Chief Minister and had led the BJP to a spectacular victory in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh last year. But she did not wait for even a day to submit her resignation and surrender herself before the judiciary in Hubli.

Now the nation is waiting for what the Congress led government at the center do in respect of those Ministers who have been facing charges of heinous crimes, ranging from murder to extortion to fraud and kidnapping. I would like to emphasise that these charges have not been leveled by the BJP. Rather they have been slapped against these tainted ministers by non-BJP governments. Some of them such as Shri Laloo Prasad Yadav even had to serve jail sentence. Shri Taslimuddin was dropped in 1996 by the Deve Gowda government for carrying the same taint as he does now. Another Minister Shri Jai Prakash had to be dropped by the RJD Ministry in Bihar. If it was wrong for these tainted ministers to be in government then, now can it be right for them to be rewarded with ministerships in the Union Government now?

The BJP along with its allies in the NDA has taken up the demand for the removal of tainted ministers in the Union Government from day one. The NDA MPs marched to Rashtrapati Bhavan to submit a detailed memorandum on the criminal charges that each of these tainted ministers are burdened with. Dr. Man Mohan Singh has been dodging this demand under one pretext or the other. By doing so he has earned a bad image not only for his own government, but also for India's democracy. The BJP is not going to rest with the release of Uma Bharati. Our campaign against the tainted ministers in the Union Government will continue until they are dropped.

In this context the Prime Minister should heed the decision of the Supreme Court to stay the proceedings in the lower court in Bihar against Union Minister Mohd. Taslimuddin and has censured the Bihar Government for the "mortal hurry" in withdrawing the criminal case against the Minister. The Supreme Court's stay order has made Dr. Man Mohan Singh's defence of Taslimuddin more untenable than before.