Rahul's stand reflection of differences within Cong: Rajnath

Chennai, Sept 27: BJP President Rajnath Singh today said Rahul Gandhi's stand that the ordinance on convicted lawmakers was a 'nonsense' only underlined the 'well known fact' that there were differences within the Congress and sought to know how the party leader would describe the other actions of the UPA Government.

"If this is nonsense (ordinance), what is his comment on the (other) actions of the Congress-led UPA?" Singh asked reacting to Gandhi's denunciation of the ordinance. Gandhi's statement only underlined the "well known fact that there are differences within the Congress and between the Congress and other UPA parties," he told reporters here.

Singh claimed that there was no rapport between the Congress and the other UPA allies. On Union Minister Shashi Tharoor's statement that BJP had no problem with the ordinance initially and was opposing it now, he said, "No, no. They had not consulted the BJP. It is not correct."

To a query on BJP's stand on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's scheduled meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in the US, he said, "The Prime Minister should not meet Sharif. Unless Pakistan checks terrorism activities (against India) from its territory, he should not meet Sharif."

Commenting on the Supreme Court's verdict on negative voting, he said, "We have not read the judgement properly. The Election Commission should take cognizance of the Supreme Court judgement and call for an all party meeting to dicuss on the issue."

Citing media reports that said that the US Government was pressurising India in the Nuclear Liability issue through the Atomic Energy Commission, he said, "India's sovereignty and self-respect should not be compromised. There should be a Parliamentary debate before any kind of relook into the agreement with the US.

PTI