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Vajpayee admits casteism has affected BJP,
denies atrocities on Christians in Gujarat

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today admitted that caste-based politics in the country has had its effect on the Bharatiya Janata Party. "I own the responsibility for this," he said.

His reaction came at a press conference in Lucknow, his parliamentary constituency, in reply to a question on the personality- and caste-based politics in the party.

Vajpayee said the trend prevalent in the country had affected his party as well. Asked if he owns responsibility for it as a senior leader of the party and head of the country's executive, he said, "Yes, I own the responsibility."

In reply to another question on the call for a change of leadership in Uttar Pradesh and other intra-party disputes, Vajpayee admitted that the conflicts within the party had become public. "Various steps are being taken at Delhi and Lucknow to improve [the situation]," he said, but did not give any details.

Terming the Kalyan Singh chapter as "closed", he reiterated that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister would not be removed.

"UP mein naye adhyay ka shriganesh ho gaya hai [a new chapter has begun in UP]," he said. He said Kalyan Singh would continue to be the chief minister and take all the allies along. But he could not say whether the allies would co-operate with Singh.

Vajpayee, with state BJP chief Rajnath Singh and senior minister Kalraj Misra on one side and Kalyan Singh on the other, evaded many other questions about the differences among them. Asked pointedly whether the leaders beside him were being made to talk, he smiled: "The process of talking is a continuous one."

Vajpayee denies atrocities on Christians

Standing by his earlier statement about the need for a national debate on religious conversions, Vajpayee said he had asked for the debate after having been told that conversion is one of the reasons for the riots in Gujarat.

He denied that atrocities are being committed on Christians in Gujarat. "The secular feeling is inherent in the culture of the party and the government and any such allegation is categorically denied," he said.

Asked about the National Commission for Minorities' report blaming the Gujarat government for the riots, Vajpayee said he had not seen the report.

Asked if the atrocities on Christians had anything to do with Sonia Gandhi's rise, he said, "I don't think so."

Vajpayee denied that the activities of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are earning the BJP a bad name. "These organisations are independent and have their own work to do," he said.

He called his reported differences with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh a creation of the media and said "newspapers should stop writing about this".

Asked to comment on Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde's statement that a front of the BJP's allies is being formed, Vajpayee said he does not foresee any such front. "Even if it comes up, it will have no clash with the government," he added.

UNI

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