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Congress should go for it, says Moopanar

Tamil Maanila Congress president G K Moopanar today indicated that the Congress should take the initiative to form an alternative government at the Centre in the event of the fall of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government.

Talking to newsmen after the morning session of the party's general council meeting in Madras, he said an alternative government was possible only if all the secular forces came together.

Asked whether he considered the All India Anna DMK a secular party, he said the party had to prove its credentials, especially as it was in the BJP-led coalition.

On whether he wanted the Congress to take the initiative in forming the alternative government, he shot back: "I cannot take the initiative and form the government with just three MPs".

"I will cross the bridge when it comes", he said when asked about his party's stand if the alternative government was formed with the support of the AIADMK.

Moopanar did not agree with a suggestion that the Congress and the AIADMK were coming closer after the recent meeting between Sonia Gandhi and J Jayalalitha during the tea party hosted by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy at New Delhi.

"I do not attach any political significance to the Sonia-Jayalaitha meeting", Moopanar said, adding that as Marumalarchi DMK general secretary Vaiko had said, it was only a "storm in a tea cup".

Replying to a question, Moopanar said if the secular forces failed to form an alternative government, a mid-term poll to the Lok Sabha was likely during this year. "But I am not saying 1999 is going to be an election year", he added.

Asked about his declaration in the general council that the TMC would bring back "Kamaraj rule" in Tamil Nadu in 2001, he said he would not reveal his strategy towards achieving the goal. "We will decide as and when the situation arises", he added.

"Vaiko has always been my good friend", he said when asked whether the TMC would forge an alliance with the MDMK in its bid to restore "Kamaraj rule".

Moopanar agreed that the party could not exclude the Congress in the state while striving for "Kamaraj rule" and cited his earlier appeal to all nationalist forces and followers of the late leader to help the TMC to accomplish the task.

Moopanar also recalled Union minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam's remark that the AIADMK was an undependable ally.

On the assertion by senior AIADMK leaders that the Congress was cleansed after the exit of some Congressmen who later formed the TMC, he wondered what had prevented the AIADMK from aligning with the Congress in the 1998 general election, when the TMC had already been formed.

Earlier, the general council adopted a resolution stating that the BJP had lost its credibility and should not continue in power. Any further continuance of the "unstable government with a bunch of contradictory allies" would not be good for the people, it said.

It alleged that the BJP-led government had failed on all fronts and the people were living in constant fear about their future and that of the country.

The government had earned the wrath of the people for bending the law and interfering with the administration of justice, the general council said.

During the one-year Vajpayee regime, inflation had increased manifold, pushing up the prices of essential commodities. The Indian economy had suffered a serious setback after the decline in exports and industrial development, it added.

UNI

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