Advani voices concern on intra-party squabbles

New Delhi, Nov 27: Expressing concern over the reports of intra-party squabbles within the BJP, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani today said such informations had eroded the good work done by the party in Parliament.

Extolling the party MPs to air their views within the party forum and not in other fora, Mr Advani said cribbing in public puts the good and effective work done by the party to backburner.

All these good works, including raising of several burning issues like the Nandigram violence in Parliament, had moved the party to a new level but reports of internal differnces in the media had nullified the gains, Mr Advani regretted, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra told newspersons.

Asked if Mr Advani was referring to the events in Rajasthan, Mr Malhotra said his comment was not state-specific but aimed at the general situation in party.

About the reports that the Government cannot grant political refugee status to Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen because she held a Swedish passport, Mr Malhotra said it would not prevent the government from extending her visa for an indefinite period.

The party expressed concern on the attack on Malaysians of Indian origin by the authorities of that country and asked the Indian Government to hold talks with their counterparts to ensure that Indians and Hindus in the South Asian country were not attacked.

''Every citizen has a right to protest injustice in a peaceful manner in every civil society and India should ensure that Malaysia provided this opportunity and not crush the voices in a brutal manner,'' the party said.

It also voiced concern about the incidents in Assam where women were paraded naked while the authorities remained silent spectators. ''The govenment should quit if they can't ensure dignity of human beings, particularly women,'' Mr Malhotra said. The party demanded the Government to ensure power supply and fair returns for the produce of farmers.

It also extended its total support of the farmers to provide Rs 1000 per quintal of paddy like it had done in the case of wheat to ensure that the national food security was not jeopardised by short sighted and import lobby driven approach.

''If the farmers were to shift to some other crop cultivation, it would be very difficult to procure food grains from other countries,'' he said, adding that food stock position during the NDA regime was so secure that India was exporting food grains.

''Now during the last three years of the UPA regime, India had been reduced to the status of importer country,'' he said.

UNI