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Come clean on Bhagwat issue, Jaya tells PM

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham general secretary J Jayalalitha today asked the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to come clean on the Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat issue.

Talking to the media at the Madras airport before leaving for a five-day visit to New Delhi, she said she would express her views in this regard at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition's coordination committee meeting tomorrow.

She said she had already expressed her stand on the issue and there was no change in it. She earlier said that she was not in favour of a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe on the issue.

She declined to spell out the political significance of her visit to New Delhi, where she is scheduled to take part in a tea-party hosted by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on March 29.

Dr Swamy has also invited Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and key Opposition leaders to the party.

Asked if she would meet Sonia, Jayalalitha evaded a direct reply saying that her itinerary had already been circulated to the media.

Asked whether she still held the view that a foreign-born person like Sonia should not become the prime minister, she said, "No comments."

She refused to be drawn into a discussion on the Tamaraikani issue, saying that he had already been released.

Jayalalitha would also attend a party hosted by BJP MP Vijay Goel.

She is also scheduled to call on Prime Minister Vajpayee and Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani separately.

Jayalalitha would attend a felicitation function organised in her honour by the Women's Political Watch for her pioneering role in providing 33 per cent reservation for women in party posts.

Vajpayee and former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral are also expected to participate in the function.

She would also deliver a lecture at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University.

UNI

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