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Do it if you dare, Jaya challenges Vajpayee

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a major partner in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition at the Centre, Thursday declared that it would withdraw support if Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee endorsed Power Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam's stand that the Tamil Nadu party should leave the government.

"If so, he need only tell us and in one hour we will be at the Rashtrapati Bhavan informing the President of India that we are no longer supporting a government that does not want us to stay in it," a joint statement issued by AIADMK functionaries including party president V R Nedunchezhiyan and treasurer Sedapatti Muthiah said.

The statement said the party would continue to articulate in a responsible manner the concerns of the people. "If such frank and fully democratic talk makes us an unwelcome coalition partner, then the responsibility for the consequences of such negativism will fall on those guilty of foul abuse of the leader of the second biggest party in the present ruling coalition arrangement," it read.

Pouring scorn on Vajpayee for his statement that the constituents should learn to accept the obligations of a coalition, the AIADMK said it shared his concern. "The Samata Party, the Trinamul Congress and a section of the BJP are functioning in a manner guaranteed to ensure the collapse of his government.

"We hope that he (Vajpayee) will take up with the leaders of these parties the tendentious, malicious, motivated and untruthful statements they have made about the leader of the party that was responsible both for removing the untouchable tag of the BJP and for providing its current majority in Parliament," it said.

The statement took strong exception to Trinamul Congress president Mamata Banerjee's criticism of AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha, alluding that the latter was one of the most corrupt persons. Banerjee's "intemperate statement in extremely poor taste" was a command performance at the behest of somebody, the joint statement said.

Even as the statement came, Jayalalitha was holding consultations with her senior functionaries. Janata party president Dr Subramanian Swamy also met her in the evening.

Dr Swamy had earlier said he would vigorously pursue tabling a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha if the government failed to order a joint parliamentary committee probe into the Admiral Bhagwat issue.

There were also reports that Jayalalitha received Patalli Makkal Katchi founder S Ramdoss at her residence Thursday evening.

Displaying a sense of injured innocence, AIADMK leaders said their party "is a victim of the nexus among terrorists, drug smugglers and arms merchants. We are unhappy that individuals close to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, for instance, are in close contact with cabinet ministers and members of Parliament supporting the Vajpayee government."

The leaders also said they could not understand why "our Samata Party friends" were becoming so rabidly offensive against 'Puratchi Thalaivi' (Jayalalitha) who had merely demanded an investigation, if they had nothing to hide.

Referring to Kumaramangalam's statement that he was speaking on the government's behalf, the statement asked when he was appointed the de facto prime minister. It pointed out that Kumaramangalam was elected to the Lok Sabha and became a minister with the AIADMK's support.

It is apparent that the statement made by the party functionaries has Jayalalitha's seal of approval.

Referring to Admiral Bhagwat's allegation that a coterie of drug smugglers and gun-runners were influencing the decisions of the defence ministry, the statement said a thorough probe would be in the national interest. If the allegation was false, the nation could heave a sigh of relief. If it was true, then the guilty could be punished, it said.

THE JAYALALITHA INTERVIEW

'I don't see [myself as prime minister], but anything is possible in politics'

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