NEW DELHE Opposition Congress-I party president Rajiv Gandhi asked Prime Minister VishWanath Pratap Singh to immediately clarify deputy prime minster Devi Lal’s statement dissuading his party from attending the all Party rally on the situation 1n troubled Punjab held in Ludhiana on Thursday.
In a letter to Singh, the Congress-I president said “while considering. Appropriate response to the home minister’s invitation for the rally, the deputy prime minister has twice in succession told the Press that he did not want the Congress to attend the rally. He had gone so far as to say that a solution to the problem in Punjab was possible only if the Congress absented itself from the rally and is excluded from the process of finding solutions.”
“You will agree that a clear Statement by you as Prime Minister is necessary on whether you, as head of government, share the views of your deputy prime minister. We request you to please let us have an immediate reply to enable us to have a decision on our participation in the rally”, Gandhi wrote.
Gandhi, in his letter delivered Wednesday, said Devi Lal’s statement had “placed us in an impossible situation. We waited for the government to clarify the confusion caused by the deputy prime minister’s statement. There has been no comment on behalf of the government”.
“We can only take it that the home minister’s invitation has been superseded by the insulting remarks of your deputy prime minister”, Gandhi said.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 19, 1990
