HYDERABAD, 28 May — Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu yesterday reiterated his demand for the sacking of his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi for failing to contain sectarian violence.
He also told a party convention here that his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) would continue to adhere to secular principles while continuing to back Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s coalition government.
Setting the tone for a three-day annual party conclave here, 150 km from Hyderabad, Naidu said it was important to oust Modi to restore confidence among Muslims in that state.
Gujarat’s Muslims were the primary targets of the communal violence that has killed over 950 people.
Naidu’s relations with the Vajpayee government came under strain after the prime minister refused to boot out Modi, a leader of the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “We made our stand clear, but they did not listen us,” Naidu said, referring to the BJP turning down the demand by TDP and other pro-Vajpayee parties on Modi’s removal.
Naidu, however, clarified that his party would support all the “good measures” of Vajpayee’s multiparty National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government but would raise its voice in protest if it deviated from the agreed common agenda.
Naidu said maintaining national integrity and sectarian amity was all the more important when India faced a threat from terrorist incursions from Pakistan. The two South Asian neighbors are on the brink of war after India warned its patience was wearing thin with Pakistan’s promotion of trans-border terrorism. The TDP chief said the Congress party would never be able to rule the country on its own.
He said coalition governments were inevitable because no party had enough support across the nation to take power in New Delhi without support from other groups.
“Though the Congress says it is ruling 14 states (and Union territories), the party has no presence in 50 percent of Lok Sabha constituencies,” he said.
Naidu, whose main challenge in Andhra Pradesh comes from the Congress, used the bulk of his one-and-a-half-hour address to slam the Congress, accusing it of creating hurdles for his government’s development program and blaming it for all the ills plaguing the state.
The conclave, being attended by 6,000 delegates, is expected to focus mainly on development. It will also discuss national and international issues and pass 43 resolutions.
Naidu underlined the need to strengthen reforms in all sectors. Calling the Congress an “opportunist,” he said it was pursuing reforms in states where it was in power but opposing them in Andhra Pradesh.
Claiming the state had developed considerably in six-and-a-half uninterrupted years of TDP rule, he pointed out that the government was spending 40 billion rupees to battle poverty. He said 42.65 billion rupees would be spent on providing drinking water to villages and also promised round-the-clock power supply to all rural settlements from August.
