UNPA's views on N-deal upsets Jaya

Chennai, Sep 9: AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa, a key leader of the UNPA, today wondered whether the alliance continues to exist, as its constituents were speaking in different voices on crucial issues like the Indo-US Nuclear deal.

In a statement here she disagreed with Samajwadi Party (SP) General Secretary Amar Singh's views on setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to study the nuke deal issue and said the AIADMK was kept out of the picture.

The UNPA, recently formed with a conglomeration of seven regional parties, including the AIADMK, TDP, SP, INLD and AGP, was tipped as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP at the national level.

Referring to Mr Amar Singh's remarks that if a JPC was not possible to discuss the Indo-US nuclear deal then the government should consider some other mechanism to take on board the views of political parties, Ms Jayalalithaa said ''the UNPA has not evolved such a stand on the issue.'' ''Mr Singh's statement should be treated as his own individual opinion of that of the SP. This not the AIADMK's views at all,'' she added.

Ms Jayalalithaa said even in the protest rally organised by the Left parties against India's joint naval exercises with other nations, only two constituents of the UNPA -- SP and the TDP -- were invited to join the rally.

''The AIADMK was not invited and even these two parties did not bother to inform the AIADMK about the rally or their participation in it,'' she said and added that ''these developments make me wonder whether the AIADMK is still a part of the UNPA or whether the UNPA continues to exist as one entity at all''.

Ms Jayalalithaa also disagreed with the SP General Secretary's view that there was no tussle among the UNPA with regard to setting up of a UPA-Left Committee. Referring to Mr Singh's remarks that the UNPA felt that the ruling combination could have its own consultative mechanism for allies and supporting parties, but there should be another mechanism for every political party to present its views, she said this was definitely not the view of the AIADMK.

''This new viewpoint was never dicussed between the constituents of the UNPA--certainly not with the AIADMK and this cannot be termed or considered the collective view of the UNPA,'' she said.

Explaining the viewpoint of AIADMK, Ms Jayalalithaa said there could only be one single mechanism to such a vital and crucial national issue, irrespective of how many parties are involved in it, whether they are allies, outside supporters of the government or Opposition parties.

''The Indo-US nuke deal is a national issue which cannot permit promotion of any sectional view and cannot be split into parts or atomised,'' she added.

These statements attributed to the UNPA in its entirety, should at best be considered as the personal views of the leaders of one or two of its constituent parties or as the views of those parties alone, she said.

UNI