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Vajpayee refuses to meet an unrepentant Nirupam

Deepshikha Ghosh in New Delhi

In an apparent hardening of stance, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Monday refused to meet Sanjay Nirupam and other Members of Parliament of the Shiv Sena over the UTI scandal.

Sources in the Shiv Sena said that Nirupam, along with Manohar Joshi and Suresh Prabhu, the two Sena ministers in Vajpayee's cabinet, had sought an appointment with the prime minister to apparently express regret over Nirupam's remarks in Parliament last week.

Vajpayee, however, did not grant them an audience.

Nirupam's remarks against the Prime Minister's Office over the UTI scandal had led Vajpayee to threaten to resign.

Sena chief Bal Thackerey had reportedly asked Nirupam to speak to the prime minister and express his regrets since the party had not intended to hurt Vajpayee, party MPs said.

Nirupam was not allowed to make a statement in Rajya Sabha on the issue on Monday. He left the house after that and did not return for the rest of the day's session.

In fact, none of the Shiv Sena's five MPs attended the Upper House on Monday.

Nirupam had created a stir in Parliament last week when he alleged that some PMO officials had influenced state-run Unit Trust of India, India's largest mutual fund, to make dubious investments, leading to the collapse of its flagship US-64 scheme. This has affected some 20 million investors who mainly belong to India's middle class.

A peeved Vajpayee threatened to resign July 31, saying he was finding it difficult to enforce discipline in the ruling coalition. The coalition called an emergency meeting the next day and persuaded him to stay on.

In interviews to newspapers on Sunday, Nirupam kept up his tirade against officials in the PMO and alleged that the prime minister was 'blind' to corruption around him.

Indo-Asian News Service

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Defiant Nirupam not to apologise over remarks about PMO

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