ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Opposition walkout over Ayodhya in LS

Opposition parties today walked out of the Lok Sabha expressing dissatisfaction over Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement on the Ayodhya issue.

During zero hour, Rajesh Pilot (Congress) referred to the reported statement made by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prasad Gupta that his government was committed to constructing the proposed Ram temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya and 'liberate' the temples of Kashi and Mathura.

Pilot was supported by Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Somnath Chatterjee of Communist Party of India -Marxist.

The prime minister said the government had no secret agenda as was being alleged by the Opposition. The National Democratic Alliance contested the elections on the basis of a common agenda from which three controversial issues relating to the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the issue of Mathura and Kashi temples had been left out.

The NDA government would function on the basis of the common manifesto and programmes. The BJP had not issued any independent manifesto in the last Lok Sabha polls. It was party to the NDA manifesto, he added.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report