CHANDIGARH: BIP leader Atal Bechari Vajpayce last week said there had been a steady erosion of democratic institutions and that the progressive intervention of the Supreme Court was a symptom of this phenomenon. Since the executive was “nonfunctional,” the only recourse left was the apex court.
This was not a healthy sign for democracy, he said at a meet the press Program here. Mr, Vajpayee demanded that an investigation agency, free from executive control, be set up to conduct impartial investigations against all VIPs, including the Prime Minister.
He alleged that the CBI had made no attempt 19 confirm the allegations ‘against Prime Minister Narasimha Rao made by S.K. Jain in the hawala case. Asked whether the CBI had failed in its job, Mr, Vajpayce said he would hesitate to say that the CBI had been Successful either, “It has in the rent limitations as it is directly under the Prime Minister.” be added. ‘The CBI had claimed that the notes from the Jain diaries were corroborated with other evidence before the charge sheets were filed. Then why the CBI had not proceeded further in the case, Mr. Vajpayee asked. He asked whether R.K. Dhawan or Chandraswami had been confronted with the confessional statement of S.K Jain, He also wondered whether a cover-up operation had been launched once Mr. Rao’s name was mentioned in the statement.
Mr, Vajpayee said his party supported the public funding of elections to decrease the role of black money, but alleged that the Congress had a ‘vested interesting retaining the“*present Corrupt” system. He regretted that the Dinesh Go swami report on the issue had been gathering dust for years and no follow-up action had been taken on it.
The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha said Mr, Rao did not take the House seriously. He said the Gov. Em ment had failed to issue an authoritative statement on the Purulia arms dropping even a month after the incident. Neither the source of the hi-tech weapons, nor the uprooted recipient had been identified nor had the Responsibility for the security lapse been fixed, Mr. Vajpayce added, ‘He alleged that Mr, Rao had stopped taking the opposition into confidence. After he managed to Gaina majority in Parliament and now he did not even take his own party colleagues into confidence even on serious aspects of national security.
‘The BJP leader announced that his party would have scat adjustments in S0 or SO constituencies with regional parties. He clarified that nothing had ‘been finalized with the Akalis or the Haryana Vikas Party so far.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 7, 1996
