JAIPUR: The BJP vice president Sunder Singh Bhandan, has asked the Government to look into the involvement of “local fundamentalist,” in the Bombay blasts before putting the sole blame on foreign agencies.” The magnitude of the blasts and the localities selected indicate that they could not have been carried out without abetment of local people,” he told newspersons here March 14. Bhandari, who was here to participate in a two day meeting of State leaders though initially reluctant to name anybody, said later on the insistence of reporters that the role of Muslims fundamental is in the blasts should be probed. Some of the places where explosions took place this time were affected during the January flare up as well. Blaming both the State and Central governments, he said nonconcrete step was taken to keep a vigil against such disruptive elements even after the January incidents.
The BJP leader said that the Government should take a more realistic approach in its probe, The attitude of the authorities in the past four months had encouraged such elements in Bombay, he said. “Either the external forces did it themselves or with the help of local supporters. The authorities should take the blame for the lapses in its intelligence network and for lack of preparedness,” he said. Asked about the party’s relationship with the AIADMK, Bhandari said that attempts were on for forging an electoral alliance with that party, When asked about the someone anti Hindi stand of the Dravidian parties, he said that the AIADMK did nothing wrong in “protesting against increase in the time of Hindi programs in the Doordarshan,” As a party the BJP was for the three language for mula, he observed.
Bhandari denied any knowledge of pressure on the Tamil Nadu Chief Ministér from the Center to ban the proposed BJP rally in Madras on March 21. Despite the demand for the Congress MPs in Parliament fora ban on the meeting: and the Home Minister, S.B.Chavan’s assurance in the House that he would bring the issue to the notice of Jayalalitha, the BJP was hopeful of holding the meeting, Bhandari said.
He termed the appointment of Gen. K.V.K.Rao as the new Governor of Jammu and Kashmir as the “yet another bad start.” Gen. Rao was the Govern of the Sta: before Jagmohan took over and his fresh tenure was bound to prove as ineffective as the previous one, he said. Besides, Gen. Rao’s Governorship would be almost a proxy rule by Farooq Abdulla, former Chief Minister, he alleged.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 19, 1993
