Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002
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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Special Correspondent
Describing as `cheap politics' Mr. Naidu's remark that Ms. Gandhi had merely read out at Anantapur speeches drafted by her personal assistants, he said any worthwhile leader would consult subject experts before speaking in public. The Chief Minister perhaps considered himself as an expert in every field and felt no need for such consultations, he said at a press conference. The CLP leader said the Chief Minister should try to identify reasons for this unfortunate trend of suicide among farmers and weavers by appointing a committee instead of trying to defend the Government. Figures furnished by the Government in Parliament showed that 385 farmers had committed suicide in AP during the last two years out of 480 in the country. He accused the TDP leader of being `rank opportunist' who had performed several political somersaults in the recent past. He had described the BJP as a communal party only to join hands with it to win the elections. Even on the Gujarat issue, the TDP had demanded Narendra Modi's resignation and reversed its stand to say that it had never considered withdrawing support to the Vajpayee Government when the BJP leadership acted tough. He dared the TDP to prove its secular credentials during tomorrow's voting in Parliament on the Gujarat issue after a discussion under Rule 184. On the comment that Ms. Gandhi should have persuaded the Karnataka Chief Minister, S. M. Krishna, to release water to AP from the parallel high-level canal, he said this was an inter-State affair in which the AICC leader had little role to play. He wondered the fate of Mr. Naidu's assurance to the Assembly five months ago that he would himself take up the issue with his Karnataka counterpart. The CLP leader ridiculed the Rs. 500-crore package announced by the Government for Anantapur district saying that it was nothing but repackaging of unspent funds given by the Centre for the watershed programme. He said Ms. Gandhi may have distributed only Rs. 20 lakhs to farmers' families but the gesture was aimed to serve as an eye-opener for Mr. Naidu. Responding to a query, Dr. Reddy said there was no question of the CLP pulling outs its MLAs from the five-nation study tour "as of now.'' It had already proposed the name of 14 MLAs for the trip to China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. "I will let you know if there is any rethinking,'' he added. Announcing that he would not participate in the trip, he said the APCC president, M. Satyanarayana Rao, being a senior party leader had his own views against the tour. But, it was not true that the CLP had not consulted the APCC on the issue. In fact, he had invited Mr. Satyanarayana Rao to the meeting but he could not make it. He said problems, if any, would be sorted out within the party. Dr. Reddy said the CLP had debated the issue thoroughly with some MLAs opposing the tour and others favouring it. But, the CLP made it clear to the Government that it should be a study tour useful to the MLAs and not a pleasure jaunt. It had even suggested inclusion of Brazil in the study tour since the country was successfully using a mix of petrol and ethyl alcohol to run automobiles. He felt that there was no need to refer the issue to the Congress high command.
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