By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Another Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has come out in support of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as future prime minister. Senior party leader Yashwant Sinha Monday said Modi has all the qualities to fit the top job.
“I see all the qualities of a prime minister in Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,” Sinha said while addressing a news conference in Ahmedabad.
Commenting on the Sri Lankan crisis, Sinha who was finance minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, said that India should tell the Sri Lankan government that LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran should be allowed to leave the island nation and surrender in India.
He said the Tamil Tigers’ chief should be tried in an Indian court if he is not willing to surrender in Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran is a proclaimed offender in India too.
Sinha said the Indian government must pressurise Colombo to stop all offensive operations against Tamils or the government should recall its envoy from the country.
Referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s comment that if the Congress government is voted back to office it would bring the Indian economy out of recession in 100 days, Sinha said: “The recessionary conditions in India started well before there was even talk of a global economic slowdown. The recession has only deepened in India now. The Indian economy continues to be in crisis as the prices of essential commodities have really not gone down during the UPA rule at the centre.”
Sinha said the recession was more on account of the faulty policies of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. “Now the UPA government admits openly that the Indian economy was strong during the NDA rule and it got a strong economy in 2004 as a legacy when it came to power at the centre,” he said.
On the Congress’ allegations that the NDA government released the terrorists during the 1999 Indian Airlines hijack crisis in Khandahar, Sinha said: “If there was Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi in power during the crisis, would they have compromised with the lives of 166 passengers on board? The Congress needs to answer this.”