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Vajpayee rules out seeking fresh mandate

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today ruled out the possibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party- led government at the Centre seeking a fresh mandate in view of the pressures and demands being exerted by the All India Anna DMK.

Addressing a press conference at the Raja Sansi airport near Amritsar, the prime minister said there was no need for a fresh election as advocated by Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde. ''We have the people's mandate and a majority in the Lok Sabha'', he added.

Questioned about internal bickerings in the BJP-led coalition government, the prime minister said, ''I hope these will not happen again''.

Questioned about the demands of the AIADMK and the Samata Party, seeking the dismissal of the Tamil Nadu and Bihar governments respectively, Vajpayee quipped that his government was taking note of all these demands. "Various demands were being made in various parts of the country by various political parties, and all these were being noted," he added.

When asked whether his government would consider invoking Article 356 to dismiss the Bihar and Tamil Nadu governments, the prime minister said, ''I have been asked this question a number of times so I do not want to comment''.

Vajpayee stated that his government had prepared a national agenda, and concrete steps were being taken for its implementation in consultation with all the BJP's allies.

Asked to comment on Home Minister L K Advani's statement that the Presidential form of government was best suited to the country, Vajpayee replied that in the national agenda, a proposal had been made for setting up a commission to study the Constitution and its relevance in the present political scenario. During the last fifty years, a number of opinions had been expressed suggesting changes in the Constitution, and this was precisely what the commission would go into, he added.

This commission would examine the Constitution in detail, and the BJP would also present its views before it, he added. It would be up to the commission to suggest or recommend the presidential form of government, but the final decision would not be taken without the people's co-operation, he added.

The commission's suggestions would be tabled in Parliament, and only then would a final decision be taken, he added. The prime minister sought to dispel rumours that the commission was being set up with the sole purpose of doing away with reservations, which the present Constitution guarantees for backward and other oppressed classes.

Regarding the long-pending demands of Punjab, which include the transfer of Chandigarh and shelving the controversial Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal project, Vajpayee assured that all these demands would be taken up by his government. Talks between Punjab and Haryana would be held across the table and in a cordial atmosphere, he added.

UNI

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