BJP to bring adjournment motion against UPA

New Delhi, Feb 20: The BJP will bring an adjournment motionagainst the UPA government in the Budget session of Parliament,starting on February 23.

However, NDA leaders would take a formal decision on the issue onthe eve of the Budget session, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman VijayKumar Malhotra said today.

The party has shortlisted two issues--the Samjauta Expressexplosions and the price rise--but only one issue would be chosen forthe adjornment motion, he said.

Mr Malhotra said the 15-member core committee of the BJP wouldmeet at former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence tomorrowto chalk out the party's strategy for the Budget session before thescheduled Parliamentary Party meeting of the NDA on Thursday.

The core committee has Mr Vajpayee, former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, Party President Rajnath Singh, and other BJP leaders,including Ms Sushma Swaraj, Mr Arun Jaitley, Mr Santosh Gangwar and MrMalhotra as its members.

Justifying that both the issues were fit for the adjournmentmotion, Mr Malhotra said the government had ''utterly failed'' to checkthe menace of terrorism and inflation.

''Today, under the UPA regime, a common man is insecure and on theother hand, hard-hit by the spiralling price rise,'' he added.

Mr Malhotra, who along with former Delhi Chief Minister SahibSingh Verma and BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, visited theSamjauta Express blasts site near Panipat today, said the governmenthad not taken seriously the BJP's concern over the increasing terroristactivities and had also ignored its own Security Advisor M KNarayanan's warnings that several important installations were beingtargetted by terrorists.

Besides, the terrorists had also infiltrated into the stock exchanges to make money, he said.

He said, ''It was ridiculous that the government was going softdespite the fact that Home Minister Shivraj Patil had talked aboutdangers looming large on important installations.'' Mr Malhotrademanded a more stricter legislation than POTA to be brought in to senda clear signal to terrorist organisations about the government'sresolve to face the challenge.

UNI