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Don't politicise Presidency, says Vajpayee

Senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee today criticised the efforts being made by some political parties to drag President K R Narayanan into a political controversy.

"I am pained and anguished at the efforts of some political groups to drag the highest office of the land into political controversy," he said in a statement in New Delhi.

Describing as "politically motivated" the campaign by a section of the United Front against the ethically and constitutionally valid intervention by the President in the Romesh Bhandari episode in Uttar Pradesh, the former prime minister said these people were in fact supporting the UP governor who has a sense of constitutional misdemeanour to his credit.

He said the country was fortunate that it had a President who was not only a strict constitutionalist but also commands a moral authority over the political system.

Regretting that Prime Minister I K Gujral and the council of ministers had not condemned the efforts to denigrate the President's office, he alleged that some ministers were actively conspiring with the governor.

The BJP's ally, the Samata Party, has demanded that former prime minister Chandra Shekhar and Marxist leader Harkishen Singh Surjeet tender an apology for having denigrated the high office of President, accusing it of leaking information about the UP governor's conduct to the press.

Party general secretary Jaya Jaitly said the leaders of such stature should not have dragged the President's office into a controversy.

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:
President takes a hard knock for frowning on Bhandari

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