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TITLE: Armsgate Gives Congress a Chance to Rejoice |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: Economic Times |
DATE: March 18, 2001 |
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Bangalore Opposition Congress party, plagued in the past by corruption scandals that shook its dominance, on Saturday sought to turn the tables on the ruling coalition over a sensational arms scandal. Party president Sonia Gandhi led a bitter attack on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government, cheered by some 1,300 delegates of her party's highest body, who scented in the scandal hopes of a revival after its worst electoral show two years ago. "Whatever is happening is betrayal of the country. It cannot be forgiven," Gandhi told the All India Congress Committee meeting to ratify her re-election as party president. Congressmen in starch-white clothes and Gandhi caps clapped and shouted slogans as she led calls for the government to quit. The mood in the technology city of Bangalore was upbeat ahead of provincial elections in five states due later this year. In a sprawling marquee decorated in saffron, white, and green colours of her party and the Indian flag, Gandhi accused the Hindu nationalist-led rulers of hypocrisy and religious bigotry. "The entire government is steeped in corruption," she said. "We demand the departure of the government on moral grounds." Vajpayee's coalition led by his Bharatiya Janata Party suffered its worst crisis this week when an Internet news site, Tehelka.Com, revealed spy camera tapes that implicated senior party and government officials in alleged bribery. BJP president Bangaru Laxman resigned after admitting to taking a wad of money from journalists of the website posing as defence gear merchants trying to influence a deal but said the funds were a contribution for his party, and not a bribe. Defence minister George Fernandes and the president of his Samata Party, Jaya Jaitley, also quit after the scandal erupted but said they were innocent. Vajpayee on Friday ordered a probe by a Supreme Court judge, with a four-month deadline. But Congress said it was pointless as the coalition was defending Fernandes and continuing with other officials named in the scandal. In the draft of a resolution set to be adopted on Saturday, Congress asked activists to take the scandal to the streets. The resolution also relaxed the party's traditional aversion to joining coalitions, saying they were needed to fight the BJP. It said the party was set to win the regional polls. Congress suffered from various accusations of cover-up or worse between 1987 and 1996 in a number of corruption scandals. It won only 114 seats in the last polls held for the 545-seat lower house of parliament in 1999 -- its worst show yet. Gandhi's husband, former premier Rajiv Gandhi, lost power in 1989 in a campaign dominated by a scandal over the purchase of howitzer guns from Sweden's Bofors. He was assassinated by a Sri Lankan Tamil woman suicide bomber at an election rally in 1991. The Italian-born Gandhi, who took charge of the party in 1998 after shunning active politics, accused the BJP of "character assassination" of her husband and his mother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi. Congress has ruled India for 45 of the 54 years since independence from Britain in 1947. The AICC resolutions attack the ruling coalition of bungling on the economy, nuclear policy and separatism in Kashmir, fanning religious bigotry and ignoring farmers interests, among other things. "The BJP's much-vaunted championship of honesty in government and patriotism in governance stand exposed as a hollow myth...," the draft of the political resolution said. END |