CHANDIGARH: Ram Vilas Paswan, general secretary of Janata Dal, has said that Akalis were not anti-national and there was every possibility of an electoral alliance with them. Addressing a press conference here recently, Paswan said that any political party which accepted the Constitution of the country could not be branded as anti-national. He did not attach much significance to the “controversial” honoring ceremony on the concluding day of the World Sikh Conference at Amritsar.
To a question, he said that terrorism was a baby of the Congress itself for which the whole nation was paying a price. Atrocities on minorities and the weaker sections of the society had become a routine under Congress rule he added.
In a rebound to a question, Paswan asked, “Who created LTTE in Sri Lanka?” There was evidence that Bhindranwale, at one point of time, was close to certain senior Congress leaders, he said.
Condemning the cult of violence, the JD leader said the recent bomb blasts in Chandigarh, Delhi and Panipat were a dastardly act. At the same time, he was of the view that the government had failed to arrest the real militants and was harassing innocents.
On the political scene at the national-level, he said there was great dissent within the Congress and there were indications of a further break- up. Many Congressmen were disenchanted with the policies of the Rao government and dynastic approach of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and would cross over to the NF alliance, he said. Giving a period of two months to the Congress in its present form, he said the Chandraswamy issue and the Cabinet expansion would prove to be a bans for it.
Calling the BJP BSP alliance in UP unholy and opportunistic, the National Front Idader observed that the BJP would soon withdraw its support to the state government.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 6, 1995
