New Delhi: Maintaining an unrelenting posture on the "tainted ministers" issue, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today (Jun 10, 2004) said the cases against National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders were of political nature unlike those against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leaders.

"These (cases) are of different nature. You cannot assess them by one yardstick," he said when referred to UPA contention that his Government also included "chargesheeted" ministers.

Vajpayee asserted that a person booked for violating Section 144 of IPC (prohibitory orders), which is a "political crime" cannot be classified with "other criminals".

Asked about a statement he had given in Parliament as Prime Minister to defend senior party leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi in Ayodhya demolition case, he said, "I had given the statement in a different context. You cannot have one gauge to all issues."

On the future strategy of the NDA on the "tainted" issue, he said that while leaving Parliament that it will be unveiled in the next session, a Budget session which is to be called soon.