CHANDIGARH: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national secretary Madan Lal Khurana, MP, said Prime Minister Narasimha Rao must resign and a Supreme Court enquiry be held into the payoff scandal.
He told a news conference here that Rao was a suspect in the eyes of the people as proved in opinion polls and he should volunteer to appear before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) the way BJP president L.K.Advani had offered.
Khurana said that while the ruling party had armed its guns on the BJP, the issue of providing political protection to Harshad Mehta was first raised by Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar and echoed by Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh. The BJP members of the JPC were aware of the letter written by Mehta to the CBI seeking political protection but the party decided not to) make it public. The initiative in this regard had come from senior members of the ruling party.
The BJP leader said the Central government was in a coma and could survive for some time but would not be able to function. The Prime Minister and his cabinet had become a symbol of mismanagement and maladministration, the political machinery of the nation was in disarray and the economy in shambles. Above all, the “disreputable character” of the Prime Minister had come to the fore. He said a frightening picture of the nexus between the Prime Minister himself and the criminal section of the country had come to light.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 16, 1993
