Press Releases in May

03.05.2004
STATEMENT OF Dr.SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY, PRESIDENT OF JANATA PARTY MADE IN CHENNAI
1. Consistent with my pre-poll assessment, it is now probable that neither the BJP nor Sonia Gandhi will be able to form the next government. The search for who will be the next Prime Minister will have to wait the outcomes on May 13th; as to who has been elected and which party has got how many seats. While there are many deserving persons to be PM, some will be ruled out because of impossible-to-bridge personal differences. The consensus candidate at the very least will have to be acceptable to Mulayam, Laloo and Mayawati who have fierce inter-personal animosity, but their respective parties will win more than 25 MPs each. There is a short list of such candidates who will be acceptable as PM but it cannot be disclosed before 13th.
2. In the case of Ms. Sonia Gandhi besides her total unacceptability there is a clear legal bar for her becoming Prime Minister because of "reciprocity" proviso to Section 5 of the Citizenship Act. This stipulates that an Indian citizenship conferred under this section to an Italian shall be subject to conditions and restrictions that apply to Indians who seek Italian citizenship. In Italy, a naturalised citizen cannot hold high public office[e.g., become Prime Minister] of that country. Hence, because of the conditional reciprocal nature of Ms. Sonia Gandhi's Indian citizenship, she is disqualified to be Prime Minister. I have written the Home Minister to issue a G.O., to make this clear. Otherwise I would consider approaching the Supreme Court at the earliest.
3. On May 3, 4, 5 & 6th, I shall be campaign for the Janata candidates set up on the recommendation of the New Justice Party headed by A.C. Shanmugham.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)

24.05.2004
PRESS RELEASE
1. All secular and patriotic parties should condemn the blackmailing stand of the DMK President Mr.Karunanidhi made public yesterday. He has asked his Ministers not to take charge of portfolios assigned by the PM or attend office till he is assured implementation of his extra-constitutional pre-election secret understanding with Ms.Sonia Gandhi conveyed to him in a letter by AP Congress leader P.Janardana Reddy (On whose behalf?) Mr.Karunanidhi should make that letter public now.

2. Mr.Karunanidhi first took the stand that he will keep his party out of Government “for now”. Then, he changed his stand to get inducted his family favourites as Ministers. Now, he says till the secret understanding is implemented, the party directs the Ministers to effectively go on strike and abstain from work.

3. The real grievance of Mr.Karunanidhi is that he had been assured - behind the back of Dr.Manmohan Ssingh – that the ban on the LTTE would be lifted, and the LTTE recognized as the sole representative of the Sri Lankan Tamils.

4. Either the DMK should get out of government, or recognize the constitutional prerogative of the Prime Minister and act accordingly.


(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)