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I did for Vajpayee what I did for Rao in 1993, says Buta

Dismissed communication minister Buta Singh today termed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's action against him as "treachery", and announced withdrawal of his support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government at the Centre.

An anguished Singh told a crowded press conference at his home immediately after his removal from the Cabinet, that he was singled out and discriminated against while at least half a dozen ministers, including Home Minister L K Advani, faced graver charges.

Singh wondered how Vajpayee could deliver a fearless governance when he himself got so scared of All India Anna DMK leader J Jayalalitha and chose to bow before her threats.

In a three-page letter to the prime minister, photocopies of which were circulated to the press, Singh asked how he would explain his party's stand on Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Ramakrishna Hegde, Kalyan Singh, Sukh Ram and others "whom you are giving full protection".

A visibly upset Singh charged that Advani was facing a more heinous crime of hatching a conspiracy to divide the people on communal lines.

Singh, who is contemplating legal action against Pramod Mahajan, the PM's political advisor, said Mahajan threatened him and his family members with serious consequences if he failed to resign immediately.

"If I fail to submit my papers within ten minutes, I and my family members will be in deep and serious trouble and will face serious consequences. May I take it that the PMO will now implement the above threat under your sanction as I could not respond to your letter within the stipulated ten minutes?" Singh wrote to the prime minister.

Mahajan had gone to Singh's Lodhi Road home around noon to deliver a letter from the PM asking Singh to resign. Singh said he was in the Supreme Court at that time.

Singh said after his name figured in Jayalalitha's letter to Vajpayee, he contacted Ram Jethmalani who advised him not to succumb to pressure. Jethmalani told him that neither he (Jethmalani) nor Hegde or anyone else should resign.

He said he had mobilised the support of several MPs to enable Vajpayee won the trust vote, as he had done for the minority government of Narasimha Rao. "I did not commit any crime at that time, or this time also, since mobilising the support of MPs is my parliamentary privilege which I would exercise again in future," he said.

"You are aware that it was for this very act in 1993 that my name was included in the list of accused in the JMM case on which the judgment of the Supreme Court is awaited. If that act was weighed as a crime at that time, let the country also know that you asked me commit the same act for your own survival. Let me assure, prime minister, that I will not take this issue to the public as it was done in full confidence."

He said it was a wrong impression that the Supreme Court had decided the JMM case against him. In fact, he said, the prime minister should have taken legal opinion before jumping to conclusions.

Buta Singh said there was a "deep-rooted conspiracy to finish off my four-decade old political life. I will fight this tirade and blackmailing."

Referring to his future plans, he said he would float a new party to take up public causes, particularly of Rajasthan, from where he had been returned to the Lok Sabha.

Asked about a possible tie-up with his parent party, the Congress, Singh quipped, "I will align with those who will support my issues."

Meanwhile, Mahajan clarified that Singh at no point of time was either asked to mobilise or did actually mobilise the support during the Vajpayee government's confidence motion. ''His comment regarding this is borne out of sheer frustration over his exclusion from the Union Cabinet,'' he said.

''It is absurd to say that I have threatened either Buta Singh or his family because I was told that no one was present when I went to his house at 1330 hours. The only truth about 'ten minutes' is that I asked his assistant private secretary, Pritam Singh, to show or communicate the letter to Singh at the earliest only to give him an opportunity to resign instead of his exclusion from the Union Cabinet,'' Mahajan said.

UNI

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