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Lok Shakti bristles at AIADMK's barbs, but leaves the issue to PM

The Lok Shakti of Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde today took strong exception to the All India Anna DMK's diatribe against their leader, but chose to leave the issue to be decided by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Apparently irked over the AIADMK ministers's salvo against Hegde to either ''shut up or get out'', Lok Shakti spokesperson M Raghupathy pointed out to newspersons that ''it is the prerogative of the prime minister to retain or oust any member of his Cabinet''.

The AIADMK had placed the removal of Hegde on its agenda after the dismissal of Buta Singh from the Cabinet, he alleged. ''Let them go ahead with their programme, we are not scared," Raghupathy added.

Asserting that Hegde was neither facing any criminal charges nor any chargesheet, he said, ''We believe in better understanding and meaningful dialogue among the coalition partners and more interested in implementation of the national agenda of governance. We are committed to dignity and honour of the government which will last its full five year term'', the Lok Shakti spokesperson added.

Hegde will send his ''comment'' to Vajpayee in a day or two on AIADMK chief Jayalalitha's letter to the prime minister levelling charges of corruption against him, Raghupathy said.

Referring to the Lok Shakti leader's remark that Vajpayee should seek a fresh mandate, he said it should be read in the proper context as Hegde had only made a suggestion to put an end to the ongoing bickering among the coalition partners.

But he was not at all in favour of a snap poll, the spokesman Said, adding that on an earlier occasion, Hegde had asked the then Congress president Sitaram Kesri not to withdraw support for the United Front government despite having parted company with the UF, to avoid plunging the country into an election.

The Lok Shakti spokesman also trained his guns on Subramanian Swamy, describing him as ''the villain of the piece'' and raised doubts whether the Janata Party leader could be part of the coordination committee of the ruling coalition which is meeting shortly to sort out contentitious issues.

Without naming Jayalalitha, he said, ''Those who land in the hands of Subramanian Swamy should realise what happened to former prime ministers Chandra Shekhar and P V Narasimha Rao for keeping his company''.

Raghupathy demanded a thorough probe into Swamy's alleged links with Chandra Swami who is facing FERA charges and a case of submission to the Election Commission of alleged forged documents in 1988.

He evaded a direct reply to a barrage of questions whether the Lok Shakti was for the ouster of Swamy from the ruling coalition. But he quoted Pramod Mahajan as saying that Swamy was not a BJP front partner.

Asked whether the Lok Shakti was in favour of dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, Raghupathy said Hegde, being one of the main architects of Sarkaria Commission which did not favour the dismissal of a state government, was against the misuse of Article 356.

UNI

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