Sonia’s letter on FTA: BJP demands PM’s resignation

Thursday May 11 2006

PTI

NEW DELHI: Terming as “public humiliation” of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s letter to him on free trade agreements, BJP on Wednesday demanded his resignation and asked government to make public both the letters and the pacts signed so far.

“Such exchange of letters wherein Sonia Gandhi has cautioned the Prime Minister against the FTAs and latter has sought to assure her are unprecedented, mysterious and beyond our understanding.

Gandhi could have conveyed her reservations over telephone also. It is a public humiliation of the Prime Minister by her”, BJP parliamentary party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters here.

Any “self-respecting” Prime Minister should resign, he said and demanded that both the letters and the FTAs concluded with other countries so far be made public.

“The issue is far more serious. FTAs are fatal for the country’s manufacturing and agricultural sector. First, both the Prime Minister and the Congress take credit for the FTAs projecting them as a major reform.

Then Sonia Gandhi writes to Singh expressing her concerns and the Prime Minister seeks to pacify her. The Prime Minister’s continuation in office in the circumstances does not behove him”, he said.

Farmer suicides are on the rise in Congress-ruled states and in the last two years of UPA rule itself about 8,000 agriculturists have committed suicide, he alleged.

The BJP has given a notice for discussion on the FTAs in the business advisory committee of Lok Sabha besides notices on price rise and import of wheat.

Leader of opposition L K Advani has also written to the Prime Minister on all these issues, he said adding the party would raise them during the ongoing session.