UDAIPUR: Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee today described the Prime Ministers package offer on Punjab as “no solution to the present tangle.”
Reacting to Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s announcement made in Parliament yesterday, Mr. Vajpayee said: “It has no content.”
The BJP leader said unless the Government punished all the ring leaders of 1984 Riots who have links with the Congress (I) the people would not be satisfied.
He repeated his suggestion that the Government ‘should ask the Army to flush out militants from the border areas and convene an all-party meeting to hammer out a lasting solution to the Punjab problem.
Mr. Vajpayee said it was “not an opportune time” to hold Panchayat elections in Punjab in May as was announced by Mr. Gandhi.
Mr. Vajpayee urged other Opposition parties to change their attitude towards the RSS if they wanted its cooperation to win the December general election.
Replying to questions on the unity efforts among the Opposition parties here, the leader of the BJP parliamentary group said except during the 1977 elections the RSS had not supported any party, including the BJP as a group. The results of those crucial elections were known to all.
We would like the RSS to extend the same support in the coming elections as in 1977. But for this the Opposition parties should change their stand towards the RSS, They cannot go on criticizing it a communal organization and yet expect its help in the next elections.”
Mr. Vajpayee was confident that the country would have a coalition government at the Centre next year. Such a government had become a reality in the States and “we want to show to the nation that it could be a success at the Centre also.”
Article extracted from this publication >> March 17, 1989
