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Vajpayee is an indecisive PM, says Shekhar

Former prime minister Chandra Shekhar has said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is a victim of circumstances -- and an "indecisive prime minister" who can't take his own decisions, and that certain people were using him like a pendulum, forcing him to take opposite positions every other day.

Participating in a television interview, the former prime minister said Vajpayee's authority had not been established from day one and it was the most 'unfortunate' part of the whole thing. He said the prime minister was under the influence of people who did not understand the problems of the country.

He said the decisions taken by the prime minister during the last 100 days were without going into the deeper implications. Compromises were being made at the prestige and office of the prime minister. "This should not be done. Anyone in this chair should be respected if not by the people at least by the alliance partners," he said.

Chandra Shekhar, who recently launched the bitterest attack on Vajpayee and the functioning of his government, said the central government had not governed the country but just survived. A government which is always in search of survival, and wants to remain in power anyhow, cannot solve the problems of the nation today. In fact they are creating more problems , he opined.

Chandra Shekhar traced Vajpayee's problems to the party he was heading, saying it was not a political party. The Bharatiya Janata Party, he said, was a wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the RSS did not aspire for political positions but for the goals it had charted for itself. That was why the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad say Ayodhya was a spiritual issue and god was above everything -- the Constitution and the courts.

The former prime minister was also critical of the handling of the post-Pokhran II situation by the Vajpayee government. They had not thought of the consequences and the saddest part is that even now they are saying nothing will happen. On the contrary, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief had warned his countrymen that they would have to face economic difficulties after going nuclear.

Chandra Shekhar said the nuclear tests had thrown up the Kashmir issue in an international forum while in the pre-test era, not a single country was ready to take the initiative to intervene on this bilateral issue. India, he said, should correct this mistake and the prime minister should take the initiative and go to Pakistan. Being a bigger country, it was India's responsibility to make up with Pakistan if it did not want third-party intervention, he said.

He said there was nothing wrong in the prime minister's special envoy Jaswant Singh 's offer to discuss a proposal of converting the Line of Control into an international border. "Discussion did not mean that you agree," he said, pointing out that such proposals were discussed in the past and there was nothing wrong in reviving, these.

Asked if he was disappointed at the cold response of the Congress party to his call to topple the Vajpayee government, Chandra Shekhar said, "If they don't want to play any role why should I feel disappointed", and added that it was for the Congress to assess and realise that the BJP would take advantage of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's Italian descent.

He said he was not optimistic about the stability of the BJP government and it may have to go because of its own partners and not just the opposition.

UNI

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