NEW DELHI (PTS): Indian Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao June 19 said that the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) was viewed as a “Hindu terrorist, Hindu extremist organization in the world.”
Addressing a meeting of his Congress (I) party he said there was a clear nexus between prime accused Harshad Mehta and the Opposition Right Wing BJP and vowed to fight both.
This is perhaps the first time that such strong terminology has been used by a senior Congress leader for the BJP.
‘Striking a sarcastic vein, the prime minister thanked BJP president, L.K.Advani for saying that the Ram temple issue was no longer on their agenda.
Rao’s comments on BJP assumed Significance as the BJP is demanding not only Rao’s resignation but midterm polls to the Lok Sabha (Lower house of the Indian parliament) as well.
Rao’s government had dismissed four BJP governments in the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh following the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya on Nov.6 last year, These states are expected to g0 to polls in November this year and the general feeling so far has been that BJP would come back to power making Rao’s continuation as prime minister untenable.
The strong condemnation of the BJP is an attempt to bring back the support of minorities to the Congress (I).The minorities have been a solid vote bank for the Congress in the past.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 25, 1993
