Sonia letter stirs debate

New Delhi, May 8 (UNI) UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's pro-farmer letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today stirred a political debates with the BJP and the Left parties accusing her of shedding ''crocodile tears''and paying ''lip service'' sending the Congress Party on a damage control mode.

A day after the letter from the Congress President expressing concern over the government's move to sign the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, the Congress denied there were differences between her and Dr Singh on the government's policy initiatives.

''As the chairperson of the ruling coalition, Ms Gandhi is fully entitled to write to the Prime Minister on issues which are brought to her attention,'' AICC Spokesman Abishek Manu Singhvi told mediapersons, while seeking to downplay the controversial letter.

Dr Singhvi also dismissed the suggestion that the communication had strengthened allegation that there were parallel power centres in the ruling UPA coalition.

''All are speculating too much. The letter was written some weeks back,'' he told mediapersons when asked if there were any differences of opinion among the two leaders.

Asked if the letter critical of the policy initiatives of Prime Minister Singh would strengthen allegations of parallel power centres in the ruling coalition, the spokesman told the questioner that ''you are building all kinds of verbal castles''.

The BJP and the Left parties, however, refused to buy the Congress argument.

''Ms Gandhi asking the Prime Minister carefully scrutinise the Indo-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement to safeguard domestic farmers is nothing but shedding crocodile tears,'' said BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar.

The malady lies in UPA government's inability to come out with a clear policy on agriculture and the failures of Congress-ruled states to help the farmers, who are driven to suicide, Mr Javadekar told reporters.

The Left parties said the UPA government should take positive measures instead of offering '' lip service'' to the farmers.

''We are afraid this is more for public consumption...we don't find it serious,'' said Rup Chand Pal, the chief whip of CPI(M) in the Lok Sabha about the letter.

''Instead of going public about it, Ms Gandhi should have prevailed upon the PM, who can't do anything without her knowledge and approval, she should actually have done the needful. Therefore, we don't accept it,'' he said.

The Congress, however, said Ms Gandhi, as the chairperson of the UPA, has only ''conveyed a point of view in writing to the Prime Minister''.

Ms Gandhi wrote the letter on the basis of the inputs she had received from different representations on the subject and she is ''fully entitled'' to forward the same to the Prime Minister in her capacity as the chairperson of the UPA, said the Congress spokesman.

Mr Singhvi said Ms Gandhi and Dr Singh had a conversation on the subject, but did not specify whether the discussion took place before the content of the letter was published in newspapers yesterday.

Asked why the content of the letter was made available to the press on the eve of the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha elections in which Ms Gandhi is a candidate, he dismissed the question as ''speculation'' adding the Congress has nothing to hide.

In her letter, Ms Gandhi had expressed concern over the FTAs being signed by the government with the ASEAN member-countries at a time when the country's domestic agricuture sector was in distress. She asked Dr Singh to ''very carefully scrutinise'' the India-ASEAN FTA to safeguard the interests of domestic farmers.

''The Congress Party feels that instead of opening up the agricultural and manufacturing sector through FTAs, more effective domestic policy measures need to be adopted to protect and strengthen the growers and manufacturers in these sectors,'' she said in the letter written on April 12.

Ms Gandhi's opposition to the India-ASEAN has been interpreted as a major embarrassment to the Manmohan Singh government as it comes at a time when Dr Singh says the need is to go ahead with FTAs with several ASEAN countries in a bid to move towards a Pan-ASEAN FTA.

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