Orissa JD members flay move to impose President's rule in UP

A section of the Janata Dal in Orissa reacted sharply to the Centre's decision to recommend imposition of President's rule in Uttar Pradesh calling it ''murder of democracy''.

In a strongly-worded statement, seven Janata Dal MLAs, four of them former ministers, said the United Front government had committed a blunder, masterminded by Congress president Sitaram Kesri, in making the recommendations.

These leaders said it was time for the right-thinking people in the Janata Dal to rethink and chalk out the future course of its political action.

Signatories of the statement included A U Singhdeo, Prasanna Acharaya, Kamala Das, Prasanna Patsani (all former ministers), Kunduru Kishal, Sachidananda Dalal and Raghunath Hembaram.

Two other Janata Dal MLAs also urged Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral to reconsider the decision to impose President's rule in Uttar Pradesh.

In a letter to the prime minister, copies of which were released to the Bhubaneswar press, JD MLAs Kalpataru Das and Bijayashree Routray said the President had rightly sent back the Cabinet proposal for imposition of President's rule for reconsideration.

They said the UF's decision had convinced people that both the UF and the Congress had little regard for the high values of democracy.

"May be the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Muslim League, whoever has the popular mandate and can muster majority support must be allowed to rule," the MLAs said, adding that, "If we have some sense of fair play and justice left with us we should act in a manner so that the people could repose their confidence in the leadership."

UNI