The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has promised to make a law, if voted back to power, to debar non-natural born Indian citizens from becoming the Prime Minister.
"We will do it as early as possible after evolving a consensus with other political parties," Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said yesterday after releasing the NDA agenda for the Lok Sabha elections.
Such a law would debar persons like Congress president Sonia Gandhi from holding high legislative, executive or judicial offices.
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The ruling alliance's national agenda for governance (NAG) in 1998 did not contain this provision. It has been incorporated into the agenda this time apparently to keep alive the issue of `swadeshi versus videshi Prime Minister'.
Vajpayee also promised to fix the term of the Lok Sabha to prevent mid-term polls and to ensure a German system of "constructive" no-confidence motions.
The proposal seems to have been spurred by the government's experience of being defeated on the floor of the House by a single vote. Vajpayee did not specifically blame any party for his government's fall but said the NDA represented the mirror-image of the nation's unity in diversity.
Unlike the previous election, there was no voluntary information or promises on the Bofors investigation. When asked, Vajpayee said he would ask the Central Bureau of Investigation to file a case as soon as the final set of papers arrived from Sweden. "Papers are not idle. They are moving," the Prime Minister said.
On stability, the Prime Minister did not sound forceful when asked if he could guarantee that the Socialist group within the NDA led by George Fernandes would not do a Jayalalitha to another Vajpayee-led coalition government after the elections. While Fernandes looked to the