SP makes agenda clear: back Govt, block BJP

PARTY POSITION: SP leader Amar Singh says his priority is to keep BJP out.

        

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New Delhi: The Samajwadi Party on Saturday came out firmly in support of the Congress-led UPA Government, claiming that it would make any “sacrifice” to keep communal parties out of power.

SP General Secretary Amar Singh said that he did not want the BJP to take advantage of the political crisis over the Indo-US nuclear deal. "(BJP leader) L K Advani is more lethal than Bush. The threat of Bush will come to an end but the threat of Advani is likely to come (after elections in 2009)," Singh said.

“The Left may choose to go with the BJP and make the Government fall but we cannot do such a thing.”

Justifying its support to the Government, Singh said it had to choose between the secular and the non-secular parties. He rejected the charge of his allies in the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) that the SP was being "opportunistic" in bailing out the Government.

''After endorsement of the (nuclear) deal by former president A P J Abdul Kalam, it was not a question of support to Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan Singh, but of what was in the interest of the country,'' said SP General Secretary Amar Singh.

''We are ready to sacrifice anything for the good of the country,'' he said. Singh made the statement after his United UNPA allies Om Prakash Chautala and Chandrababu Naidu criticised SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for supporting the UPA Government.

Chautala has said Yadav, founder of the UNPA, had hurt him by deciding to support the Government on the nuclear deal. Asked to comment on Chautala's statement, Singh said: “They are all my friends, so I would not like to make comment on him. The only thing I want to say is that for the Samajwadi Party the interest of the country took precedence over that of the party, and moreover the main issue was fighting the communal forces which were a greater danger to the country.''

He said the vote of confidence in Parliament will not be between supporters and opponents of the nuclear deal but between communal and secular forces, and the Congress was a secular party.

Singh rejected Chautala’s statement that the SP had allied with the Congress. “Neither has Congress asked for support nor have we offered our support. We are not going for power for six months. There is no wheeling dealing; we are not putting any pressure.”

The SP leader denied that he had ever demanded Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s removal from the Government but attacked Petroleum Minister Murli Deora. “I have nothing against Chidambaram, except that inflation is increasing under him. I am not against Chidambaram; I am against inflation. As for Murli Deora, he is acting in the interests of big refineries. He is acting like a corporate honcho.”