BJP to bring adjournment motion against UPA in Budget session

New Delhi, Feb 20 (UNI) The BJP will bring an adjournment motion against the UPA government in the Budget session of Parliament, starting on February 23.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mr Malhotra, who along with former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma and BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, visited the Samjauta Express blasts site near Panipat today, said the government had not taken seriously the BJP's concern over the increasing terrorist activities and had also ignored its own Security Advisor M K Narayanan's warnings that several important installations were being targetted 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 soft despite the fact that Home Minister Shivraj Patil had talked about dangers looming large on important installations.'' Mr Malhotra demanded a more stricter legislation than POTA to be brought in to send a clear signal to terrorist organisations about the government's resolve to face the challenge.

UNI