BJP hauls up UPA, Left over Arunachal

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Thursday charged the Manmohan Singh government with buckling under Left pressure to thwart a sense of the House resolution on the status of Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India.

The saffron outfit, which has of late exhibited an uncharacteristic aggression on issues in sync with its ideology, sought to corner the Congress-Left combine by hitting out at their diffidence in accepting its proposal to have a unanimous resolution in the two Houses of Parliament on Arunachal Pradesh. “I fail to understand why the government is reluctant to have such a resolution passed with one voice in Parliament,’’ wondered opposition leader L K Advani.

While Mr Advani refused to pin the blame for the failure to ensure the passage of a resolution on Arunachal Pradesh, his party colleague Sushma Swaraj was more forthcoming. ``They (the Left parties) did not want a discussion on the subject till the time Chinese president Hu Jintao was present on Indian soil. They manipulated the situation to their advantage,’’ the BJP deputy leader alleged in the Rajya Sabha. The two leaders claimed that the BJP had made its intentions known in the business advisory committee (BAC) meetings of the two Houses held on Tuesday.

“VK Malhotra had told LS Speaker that we would like to rake up the Arunachal Pradesh issue,” he added.. A needless controversy had arisen on the eve of the Chinese president’s visit to India, with a spokesman claiming that Arunachal Pradesh was a part of China,’’ the former deputy prime minister informed mediapersons.