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Jaya refuses to sign statement on price roll-back

All India Anna DMK chief J Jayalalitha today declared that she would not sign the joint statement issued by the coordination committee of the BJP-led coalition at Delhi yesterday and threatened again to keep the issue of continued support to the BJP open.

In an informal chat with reporters after paying homage to Dravidian leader and former Tamil Nadu chief minister C N Annadurai at the Anna Samadhi in Madras, Jayalalitha conceded that she was not at all happy with the present functioning of the BJP-led government.

Asked why she was continuing her alliance with the BJP when she felt that the Vajpayee government was taking unilateral decisions on important policy matters, Jayalaitha said, "An appropriate decision would be taken at the appropriate time. Wait and see."

Jayalalitha said there were many points in the joint statement issued yesterday with which her party was not in agreement and hence she would not sign it.

Since she had no advance knowledge about the statement, Union Law Minister Thambidurai, who represented the AIADMK at the coordination committee meeting, was not authorised to sign the document, she explained.

Jayalalitha described as a partial victory for her, the Centre's decision to roll back the issue price of cereals sold through the public distribution system to the people living below the poverty line. "We want full roll-back (of prices)," she added.

Answering a question on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Jayalalitha said India should not sign it until her concerns on minimum deterrence were satisfied by the five major nuclear powers.

The countries, which were exerting pressure on India to sign the CTBT, were themselves possessing numerous nuclear weapons. The United States, for example, had a stockpile of weapons which could destroy the world many times over, she added.

"Let them (the nuclear powers) go for disarmament first and we can decide on signing the CTBT later," she said.

UNI

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