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No destabilising Vajpayee, says Dhawan

Congress general secretary R K Dhawan today said his party would do nothing to destabilise the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre nor force a mid-term poll to the Lok Sabha.

Addressing a meet-the-press programme of the Ernakulam Press Club, Dhawan, who is on a two-day visit to Kerala to discuss organisational issues, said the Vajpayee government would collapse sooner than later due to its own failures and his party would discharge its responsibility in such an eventuality.

Asked if the party's stand on Bihar had not affected its image, he said his party took decisions keeping in mind the national interest and its stand on Bihar was based on certain principles. If law and order was the reason for imposing President's rule in Bihar, the situation in BJP-ruled states was worse and no such step was taken by the Centre in respect of those states, he added.

Answering a question, Dhawan said those leaders who had left the Congress for some reason or other and formed new parties should reconsider their decision and come back to the party. The reference was to the Trinamul Congress and the Tamil Maanila Congress.

Referring to organisational matters in Kerala, Dhawan, who is in-charge of party affairs in the south, said he was happy to find that groupism had become a thing of the past. He had met all leaders of the party in the state and there was complete unity and the realisation that there should be a united attempt to resolve the problems of the people of the state.

Asked about organisational elections, he said he was confident of holding the same and the election committees would have 50 per cent representation from outside to ensure that the elections were free and fair. The organisational elections in the state could not be held last time due to groupism and the Pradesh Congress Committee comprised members nominated by the party high command.

Asked about the prospects of reviving the party's Malayalam organ Veekshnam which remained closed for over six months, Dhawan said he was not fully seized of the matter but promised to look into it and do something. The publication was suspended due to financial crisis. The paper faced a threat of auction of its property on the orders of the debt recovery tribunal.

UNI

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