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Don't succumb to Jaya blackmail, Hegde tells PM

Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde says the Vajpayee government could seek a fresh mandate from the people instead of succumbing to the "blackmail tactics" of AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha.

Talking to newsmen at Bangalore airport on his return from Bangkok, Hegde said he had not seen Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's letter seeking an explanation from him regarding Jayalalitha's demand that he (Hegde) and other 'tainted' ministers be dropped from the government.

Hegde, who travelled to Bangkok to attend the ESCAP meeting, said though people did not favour another election at present, the government wanted to do some good and be different from the previous United Front government. "But if some people continued to create problems and prevent the government from functioning, I personally feel we should go back to the people again and seek a fresh mandate,'' he declared.

Hegde said he had never been asked to relinquish office in his long political career. In fact, he had resigned on his own whenever charges had been levelled against him and cited the telephone tapping episode over which he resigned as chief minister.

He said no chargesheet had been filed against him anywhere in the country and the only case filed against him was during the Emergency.

Asked whether Jayalalitha was targetting him to settle scores on behalf of Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, he said, ''If she is so foolish to be an agent of Swamy, I have nothing to say.''

Dr Swamy, he said, had used strong words against her in the past which he could not even repeat and regretted that Jayalalitha was listening to a person who had once called her the ''empress of corruption''.

Stating that Vajpayee was capable of taking the right decision on such issues, he said Buta Singh should have resigned from the Union Cabinet immediately after the Supreme Court ruling in the JMM bribery case. "We cannot have double standards and it was correct on the part of the prime minister to remove Mr Singh from the ministry,'' he added.

Asked when the pinpricks would be removed so that the government could function smoothly, Hegde remarked ''we have to remove the pins.'' He said a coordination committee of the BJP and its allies should have been set up immediately after the formation of the government.

Referring to the corruption charges made against him by Jayalalitha in her letter to Vajpayee, he said the charge relating to the payment of commission of Rs 250 million in the torpedo deal had been decided long back. "People will not be fooled if Dr Swamy repeated the same charge again," he said.

On the other charge relating to a land deal, he said it was between two private parties and the permission was given by the previous government. His relative might be involved in it, but he could not not understand what the people who made such allegations were trying to make out, he added.

UNI

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