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Somnath Chatterjee demands immediate removal of government

Veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee today demanded immediate removal of the Vajpayee government for its failure in all fronts.

Opposing the motion of confidence in the Lok Sabha, he said the government led by Vajpayee was an opportunistic alliance of different parties with different ideologies. It should be voted out of power, he said.

Chatterjee said the Bharatiya Janata Party had earlier made derogatory remarks about the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and was now hurling accusations at the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam because it withdrew support to the government. He alleged that Vajpayee had thrown to the wind all principles to remain in power.

He said the prime minister was so hapless that he could not change the portfolio of his Cabinet minister. He said Vajpayee had asked the army chief not to inform the defence minister in advance about the Pokhran blasts.

Bringing up the matter of Admiral Bhagwat's dismissal, Chatterjee said on one hand the government was against referring the matter to a joint parliamentary committee, but the defence minister had given a series of television interviews in which he revealed a great many things.

Chatterjee alleged that the Vajpayee government misused its political power by imposing President's rule in Bihar despite knowing that it did not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha. He said the government had pursued an unpragmatic economic policy was apathetic about the working class, which it treated as ''bonded labour.''

He said that the Vajpayee government, which was talking about the women's reservation bill, the Lok Pal bill and electoral reforms had not made any headway in any of these areas in its 13-month rule.

UNI

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