The Congress yesterday said it would review the policy decisions and bureaucratic transfers undertaken by the caretaker government headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee if it came to power after the Lok Sabha elections.
This was stated here by Congress general secretary Pranab Mukherjee who warned Vajpayee against taking any policy decisions as a caretaker Prime Minister.
Mukherjee, however, stated the party would not challenge the government's telecom package announced recently because it was not a policy decision. The telecom policy, which changed the licence fee regime to that of a revenue-sharing arrangement, has been approved by Parliament. Nevertheless, Mukherjee said the government should not have implemented the policy.
Similarly, reviewing the price of the kharif crop was not a
policy decision but a routine administrative job which the government was entitled to perform, Mukherjee said. According to Mukherjee, decisions which
could affect the long-term fiscal health of the country were policy matters.
"We may have to review policy decisions taken by the government if we find them against national interest. This includes bureaucratic appointments effected by the government recently," Mukherjee stated.
The Congress Working Committee, which had discussed the Kargil issue in detail for two days, came out with a resolution on Kargil in which it blamed the Vajpayee government for "negligence" which "cost the nation many brave and precious lives".
The two-page resolution makes it clear that the party is set to turn Kargil into one of its major campaign issues during the forthcoming elections.
The resolution stressed on the party's earlier statement that the government was aware of the infiltration many months ago and yet turned a deaf ear to reports received to the effect.
"The government was fully aware that this was no ordinary intrusion but that it involved the full participation of the military might of Pakistan. However, it deliberately kept the nation in the dark because its much-vaunted Lahore spirit would be in tatters.
"The revelation of the truth would have exposed Mr Vajpayee to ridicule before the nation", the resolution said and drew the conclusion that the "government had the information but not the will to act".
