What has been the role of your party chief Sharad Yadav in this entire controversy?
You must ask him. He is our national president and he has not stopped me in any way from raising this issue. NDA convener George Fernandes said after the coordination committee meeting that your assertion in Lok Sabha should not be taken at face value because “people talk when they meet.” Please comment. He may be the NDA convener and Samata Party leader, but he should not forget that even his party members [Prabhunath Singh and Raghunath Jha] supported our contention on secularism and were against the conduct of some BJP MPs in the House. Why is Fernandes silent even when the government is going beyond the agreed NDA agenda? He is the defence minister, so I won’t say anything further. But he better be reconciled that whenever we feel that the government is deviating, we will raise our voice. BJP MP Vinay Katiyar tried to misbehave by rudely gesticulating at us. That is unparliamentary. I told him he was not a contractor for all Hindus. I am a Hindu, not a hardliner but a liberal one.
