NDA coalition more cohesive, Vajpayee’s style better: SP

Vasindra Mishra New Delhi: In what may not be music to the ears of the beleaguered Congress, the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday praised former BJP prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and also said that NDA was a better coalition. In an exclusive interview to Zee News UP/Uttarakhand, senior SP leader and general secretary of the party Ram Gopal Yadav said, “The style of functioning of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was better than this present (UPA) government.” “I would say NDA`s coalition was more cohesive,” he added. When asked to compare the running of NDA and UPA, the SP leader had this to say – “NDA`s coalition was led by Vajpayee and he was a big personality. Other leaders in the coalition such as LK Advani are one of the biggest leaders of the country.” On the present political situation he said, “The political situation in the country is very topsy-turvy. It has to happen if the government is surviving on crutches. As a consequence, the work of the government is not being carried out the way the people would like it to be.” Lamenting on the fact that SP was not taken seriously Ram Gopal Yadav observed, “People who support the government from outside are not given any importance. Infact, parties who are supporting the government from inside, they are not being given importance. Parties like us who are supporting from outside are being abused by the UPA ministers.” “A coordination committee should be made for the kind of corruption that this government is being accused of. I would only say that compared to the present government, the Vajpayee government was functioning better,” he said while talking about graft. However he added that not doing enough on the post-Godhra riots was the biggest mistake of the NDA government. “The only fault with the NDA governemt was that it did not take any action on the Gujarat riots 2002.” “Samajwadi Party is the only party which has taken the communal forces head on like we did at the time of Babri Masjid demolition. The BSP fought the elections on the same platform as the BJP,” he added. Talking of the future he said, “The situation of the country is such that the two major national parties cannot form a government on their own. And SP is looking at forming a government without these two parties. With the DMK pulling out of the UPA government at Centre, the Congress is totally dependent on the SP and Mayawati’s BSP for life support. If the SP were to pull the plug, then many feel that the survival of the Congress-led UPA government would become untenable and the country would be forced to witness an early General Election. In times like these, the Congress would perhaps leave no stones unturned to placate the SP and would be hoping that Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party continue to give outside support to the government at Centre. Author is the Editor of Zee News UP/Uttarakhand.