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The United Front (UP) presented a united front on Monday when Union
home minister Indrajit Gupta reinterpreted the three explosive
nouns he had used -'anarchy, chaos and destruction' - to describe
the situation in Uttar Pradesh with three adjectives 'political,
social and economic,' in his statement to the Rajya Sabha.
UF sources said that Mr Gupta 's clarification came after the two
met for breakfast at Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda's residence on
Sunday. An MP close to the Mr Gowda said, "The PM and home
minister sorted out their problems and they have achieved a good
measure of understanding. The breakfast went off well."
It may be recalled that till last Friday, the home minister was
steadfastly maintaining that there had been no direct communication
with the PM for a while.
However, these sources also stressed that Mr Gupta's statement was
in line with the explanations he had been offering all along: A
senior cabinet minister pointed out that Mr Gupta had in a meeting
In the speaker's chamber last week explained that he was neither
referring to Mr Bhandari nor the law and order situation in UP when
he, made his first statement on the subject.
With the UF steering committee scheduled to meet on Tuesday - the
day the debate on UP will begin In the Lok Sabha under Rule 184 -
the PM undertook a damage limitation exercise on Sunday. After
breakfast with Mr Gupta, he met Union Cabinet ministers Ram Vilas
Paswan, Srikanta Jena, S. R. Bommai and working president Sharad
Yadav to discuss the contentitious UP Issue so that one view can be
presented to the steering committee.
And finally, after this meeting, Mr Deve Gowda met Mr Mulayam Singh
Yadav, who has been strongly supporting the continuance of Mr
Bhandari, to work out a compromise formula.
UF sources said that the issues before the government were that it
could not afford to remove Mr Bhandari immediately as the BJP's
demand for the latter's removal had nothing to do with his
controversial character but with the fact that he had not invited
that party to form the government in UP, as well as to deflect
attention from the positive response the UF had received to its
Union budget.
These sources added that Mr Bhandari may go eventually but this
would not be for a while. Issues that will weigh in a change at
Raj Bhawan In Lucknow are the still-awaited ruling of the Supreme
Court on the validity or otherwise of continuing with President's
Rule in UP.
But even as the UF managed to achieve a degree of unanimity, what
was causing it some concern on Monday was that while the central
leaders of the Congress were repeating that the party would vote
against the BJP-sponsored motion on UP, its UP wing was insisting
on abstention. While this does not pose a danger to the
government, its ministers shaken by last week's events, do not want
to take any chances.
Meanwhile, the UF steering committee, which is likely to discuss on
Tuesday the Union budget as well as UP, will have to deal with the
Communist Party of India-Marxist's criticism of the budget. The
PM, reacting to this, said, "Wherever some comrades may say, there
was total unanimity in the cabinet on the budget."
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