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Allies vent their ire at PM's remarks
on Ayodhya Ram temple

To add to the Prime Minister's discomfiture, the lone Muslim representative in his ministry Shah Nawaz Hussain met Vajpayee and told him that his controversial remarks had created confusion in the community in the country.

Hussain said Vajpayee told him that his remarks have been distorted.

However, Vajpayee maintained a studied silence saying he would make a statement only in Parliament.

The Bharatiya Janata party's key southern ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagan on Saturday joined the Telugu Desam Party, Trinamul Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal in disapproving the prime minister's remarks.

Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee said it was not proper for the prime minister to deviate from the National Agenda for Governance because it would be in conflict with the agreed programme.

She went so far as to say that the intemperate remarks had 'embarrassed' her.

Samata party chief and Defence Minister George Fernandes declined to be drawn into the controversy.

DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi issued a statement in Madras in which he said raising 'fresh issues that do not figure in the secular NDA agenda is unacceptable to it'.

Without making any direct reference to either the prime minister or to the BJP, Karunanidhi said there should a consensus among NDA constituents on common issues and 'thrusting' of a different point of view was also not acceptable.

The other southern ally TDP, whose outside support is crucial to the NDA government, also reacted strongly warning of 'serious implications' if there was any deviation from the common minimum programme of the coalition.

"We are extending outside support to the government only on the basis of the NAG agreed upon by all the allies. If there is any deviation from this, we will view it very seriously," TDP parliamentary party leader K Yerran Naidu told reporters after a meeting of the party MPs, chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, in Hyderabad.

Yerran Naidu demanded that Vajpayee make a statement in Parliament on Monday clarifying his stand, "since there is already tension and confusion in the country."

He said the Prime Minister was the head of NDA and he should talk only about the common agenda in the interest of the country.

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