BJP assails govt on alert 'goof-up'

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took the opportunity provided by sparring ministers Shivraj Patil and Kapil Sibal to take the United Progressive Alliance government to task on its "disjointed efforts at relief work".

According to BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj, the BJP had not criticised the government "despite receiving complaints of inadequate relief work" before because it did not want to "nit-pick" at this crucial juncture.

"The panic set off yesterday by the actions of Home Minister Shivraj Patil and the way Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal contradicted him, showed up the entire government in bad light," she said.

"They were both behaving incompetently, and blamed it on the media to absolve themselves," she added. Swaraj said yesterday's panic over a renewed tsunami threat was a setback to the rescue and relief work going on in the affected areas.

"Jaswant Singh, who landed in Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands yesterday with 25 tonnes of relief material was told to rush to higher grounds as soon as he landed. Most other people had fled in panic," said Swaraj. "He continued to sit in the airport lounge, and waited for nearly four hours before the all-clear was sounded," she added.

"This is just one small demo-nstration of the effect of pressing the panic button," she said.

Swaraj said the BJP would again press for an all-party meeting on the issue. She also said that the party could not understand the government's refusal to declare the Tsunami disaster a national calamity.

"On the one hand, the Prime Minister says we do not require aid from outside. On the other, he says the financial implications of naming this a national calamity is what is preventing him from doing so. I wo-uld like him to explain the contradiction in his statement," she said.

Countering comments made by her party's ally George Fernandes of the Janata Dal (U) that the previous NDA government should have implemented the reports of the Disaster Management Committee set up after the Gujarat quake to act speedily in times of disaster, Swaraj said that the NDA government had been voted out by the time it was to be done.

"We were no longer in government by then, therefore it is not our fault," she said. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of the Opposition LK Advani will be again calling for an all party meeting on the Tsunami disaster.