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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The concluding day of the monsoon session of the Parliament on Friday promises to be a stormy affair with the Congress-led Opposition deciding to corner prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his alleged role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
This became apparent on Thursday with the Congress disclosure that the party would raise the issue of Vajpayee being allegedly present in a meeting held in the house of the erstwhile Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh's residence, just before the masjid in Ayodhya was demolished.
"We will certainly raise the issue in Parliament tomorrow (Friday)," pointed out Congress spokesman Anand Sharma.
He said that the former superintendent of police in Faizabad, B B Rai, had made the disclosure about Vajpayee attending the meeting in Kalyan Singh's house, in which his senior party colleagues Lal Kishenchand Advani and Dr Murli Manohar Joshi were also present.
Asked whether the Congress would ask for the prime minister's resignation over the issue, Sharma said it is for his party's political affairs committee to decide on strategy.
Contending that the former Faizabad SP's disclosure was a serious affair, Sharma said his party would get down to the bottom of it.
"After all, the Congress is the principal opposition party and it cannot keep quiet if he (Vajpayee) was indeed present in the meeting at the erstwhile UP chief minister's residence," Sharma told rediff.com.
He indicated that the Congress UP unit would delve into Rai's 'disclosure', and its strategy would be accordingly chalked out.
Significantly, the former Faizabad SP later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and successfully contested the election from the Faizabad parliamentary constituency.
"Yes, we have heard about what the Congress has alleged and it could turn out to be serious considering that our party leaders are upbeat about the assembly elections in UP," admitted a senior BJP general secretary.
However, Vinay Katiyar, the BJP's MP from Faizabad, ridiculed the Congress contention about Vajpayee being present at Kalyan Singh's meeting.
"The Congress leadership knows it has very little stake in the UP elections and so it is trying to discredit our party with the help of a resentful opposition," he pointed out.
However, Katiyar's assertion could fade out into insignificance if some of the ruling alliance partners, notably the Telugu Desam Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Trinamul Congress, start evincing interest in the allegation levelled by the former Faizabad SP.
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