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Home minister Indrajit Gupta sought to put an end to the
controversy over the differences between him and the Uttar Pradesh
governor by declaring in the Rajya Sabha on Monday that his remarks
were not directed against Romesh Bhandari but were blown out of
context by the media.
In a bid to explain away his remarks, the home minister gave an
elaborate interpretation to the words 'anarchy, chaos and
destruction', which he had used while describing the UP situation.
According to him, what he had meant was 'political anarchy' because
of the political stalemate in the state to form a government,
'social chaos' because of the caste-communal tension and
'destruction of the economy' due to lack of development.
The home minister's 40-minute reply in the Rajya Sabha on the UP
situation prompts the Bharatiya Janata Party's move to embarass the
government by raising a discussion under rule 184 for recall of
Romesh Bhandari later this week. This was obvious from the smug
look on the faces of Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda and defence
minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Instant walk-out staged by the
BJP at the end of the home minister's reply.
Mr Gupta maintained that the law and order situation was
deteriorating in the absence of a popular government and pleaded
with all political parties and leaders to join hands to "instal a
popular government" to save Uttar Pradesh from "doom and disaster."
Recalling his statement of February 24 In the Lok Sabha, the home
minister categorically stated, "Neither did I make a reference to
the governor nor did I confine my statement to the law and order
situation. Besides', the general situation should not be measured
In respect of ;he crime graph alone."
Going a step further, Mr Gupta clarified that it was the media that
had "gone to town and made the whole thing a Bhandari vs Gupta
issue or vice versa. How this comes out of my statement, I don't
understand."
Interestingly, while Mr Gupta maintained that the law and order
deterioration had started in 1992 with the "single biggest act of
vandalism in Ayodhya," he did not completely absolve Mr Bhandari of
the charges levelled against him. "He may be doing wrong things,
some of you have pointed out ... I don't want to go into It ...
simply changing the governor by another will not save UP as someone
else has suggested," he said, adding that the question of replacing
the governor would have to be decided by the government. "The
Prime Minister has to decide."
The home minister also subtly made public Mr Bhandari's apology to
him by reading out the text of his letter In the house. He also
read out the governor's letters couched in similar humble tones to
Lok Sabha speaker P. A. Sangma.
Regarding the differences between him and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav,
which had also been the target of attack with the opposition
raising the question of collective responsibility, the home
minister admitted that it was unfortunately true. "We are learning
and we all make mistakes ... the matter will be sorted out in the
cabinet." As if things had already been sorted out, a pleased Mr
Yadav walked across to the home minister and thanked him.
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