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Vajpayee must clarify Ram-Laxman comment: Uma
Onkar Singh in New Delhi
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January 27, 2006 15:40 IST

Uma Bharti, former chief minister of Madya Pradesh, who was expelled from the Bhartiya Janata Party on the ground of indiscipline, said the media should ask former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to clarify his comments on Ram and Laxman while declaring that she would never ever go back to the party which had expelled her for speaking out against those who are trying to destroy the party.

Addressing a meet the media at Press Club of India, Bharti said the BJP has become Sita and Ram is unwilling to rescue her from Ravana as the two are hand in glove.

"Vajpayee and Advani were often referred to as Ram and Laxman. Maybe he got irritated because he did not like Laxman. So he decided to passed on the role of Ram to Advani and named the other (Pramod Mahajan) as Laxman. Maybe he wanted to bring down Ram to the level of Laxman. Only Vajpayee can say what he meant," she said.

She declared that BJP had been hijacked by 40 to 45 gangsters who were ruling the roost and enjoying things. "I have sworn to uproot these gangsters and rescue the party," she said.

Though she had decided not to say anything on Vajpayee and Advani as they had become helpless, she could not help in having a go at Advani time and again.

"Rajnath Singh has declared that he is returning to Hindutva. But he must clarify whether the issue of Ram Mandir is more important than paying tributes to Mohammed Ali Jinnah and laud his achievement of a separate Muslim state of Pakistan. Likewise, Jaswant Singh can also go to mazars but what he says there would be important. In their bid to get secular credentials, they have not only crossed their limits but even the border as well," she said.

She said it was not her who was insulted or expelled, but it were the workers of the BJP that had been insulted and expelled.

"I have watched over an year how things have been engineered. In the BJP people hatch conspiracies and call it politics. The Scheduled Castes, Tribes and Women as well as Other Backward Castes have been neglected but in my party, that I will launch after my next yatra which is going to be three months-long, these classes would find suitable place. I want to form my own government in Uttar Pradesh and even at the Centre. Since Uttar Pradesh goes to elections in 2007, I have planned to cover it extensively," she said.

She claimed that senior leaders like Kalyan Singh who belongs to OBC category has her good at his heart. "I respect him and I place him at the same level at which I place Atal and Advani. If he has said good things about me to the media, I am indebted to him," she said.



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