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Swamy urges Jayalalitha to withdraw support to Vajpayee government

Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy today met All India Anna DMK general secretary J Jayalalitha and urged her to withdraw her party's support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.

Jayalalitha's response to the plea was not immediately known.

Dr Swamy's demand comes amidst reports that Union Home Minister L K Advani has invited Jayalalitha to Delhi on June 19 to discuss the AIADMK's demand for the dismissal of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu.

AIADMK MPs have been staging walkouts in Parliament to press the demand.

Talking to reporters at his party office after meeting Jayalalitha, Dr Swamy said he had urged her to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government as it had become a "national embarrassment". Besides, it had also failed to dismiss the Karunanidhi government in the state which, he alleged, had a nexus with the Pakistani intelligence outfit, Inter Services Intelligence.

Dr Swamy said the partners in the AIADMK-led front had left the question of withdrawal of support to the Vajpayee government to Jayalalitha.

He expressed optimism that all constituents of the front, including the Marumalarchi DMK of V Gopalasamy, MP, would support Jayalalitha's decision in the matter.

He claimed that the BJP leadership had thoroughly ruined the country's prospects through reckless adventurism and prima donna behaviour. Withdrawal of support to the BJP government had assumed immediacy and an alternative government should be formed at the Centre, he said.

Dr Swamy said after the nuclear tests, the Kashmir issue had been internationalised to the extent that the United States wanted China's participation in finding a solution to the dispute.

The G-8, which included France and Russia, on whom India was banking, had unanimously resolved to stop all loans to the country, causing a further cutback of Rs 100 billion in budgetary resources. The US, China and Pakistan have united against India after the detonation. He said following the Union budget, whose proposals were being altered frequently, India's credit rating had gone down. The governmental decision-making had now shifted from the prime minister's office to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters, he further alleged.

Dr Swamy said a secular and patriotic alternative government, minus the BJP, DMK and the Tamil Maanila Congress was now essential for the nation's integrity.

On Advani's reported invitation to Jayalalitha to discuss the AIADMK's dismissal demand, Dr Swamy said the state RSS was opposed to the dismissal and alleged that the DMK government was patronising the RSS.

On the memorandum submitted by PMK leader S Ramadoss and other leaders of the AIADMK-led front, including himself, to the prime minister, urging central intervention in Sri Lanka, Dr Swamy said the government should take steps to extradite Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader V Prabhakaran, wanted in connection with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. The Sri Lankan issue had to be separated from the LTTE, he added.

He disclosed that when he raised the issue of dismissal of the DMK government and cited its nexus with the ISI, the prime minister had asked him to give in writing, the links between the two.

When Dr Swamy came out of Jayalalitha's home after the meeting, he told waiting reporters that they were gathering proof of the "ISI-DMK nexus".

UNI

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