NEW DELHI: The Congress (I) president Rajiv Gandhi said that Premier Chandra Shekhar’s decision to resign was a unilateral one and his party was assessing the situation with regard to government formation.
He described as hypothetical a question by reporters at the Parliament house as to whether the Congress-I would stake its claim to form a government.
Let him (Mr Chandra Shekhar) go to the president first said Gandhi who met R.Venkataraman minutes before Chandra Shekhar announced his decision to resign in the Lok Sabha.Gandhi ‘said he apprised the President of the crisis arising out the surveillance issue and the various formulae put forward to resolve the same and the government’s reaction to them The meeting lasted for 45 minutes.Gandhi made it clear that his party had not withdrawn support to the government. He had earlier told reporters that his party was very responsible and would not allow the government to face any constitutional crisis.
Describing as unfortunate the decision of the prime minister to quit Gandhi however said that it was sad that the government did not do anything in way of taking appropriate action against those responsible for the surveillance He accused the government of not reposing enough trust in the Congress-I despite the party being a major supporting block in Parliament. In spite of our support the government did not trust us enough and put us under surveillance.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 15, 1991
