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Although A new Government headed by that non-leader Inder Kumar
Gujral is in place, it is far from being complete or cohesive. The
Tamil Maanila Congress was still holding out against joining the
Government. Its moral stand was being threatened by devious P.
Chidambaram's innate love .for office. But should G. K. Moopanar
stick to his principled stand - " my loyalty as leader of UF is
suspect but not as its deputy leader " - he would gain further in
stature in Tamil Nadu politics. Otherwise, he would lose the
grounds well of sympathy he had generated in his State following
the gang-up of various UF leaders against him. The pitiable state
of disarray and disrepair in the UF was however clear when the new
Prime Minister in his wisdom appealed to Moopanar and Co. on the
floor of the House. Gujral, the social climber who has come a long
way playing second fiddle to assorted king-makers in the congeries
that passes for the United Front, was all set to win the vote of
confidence in the Lok Sabha. There can possibly be no public
interest in the debate considering that the leaders of the ruling
arrangement had nothing convincing to explain their shameful
shenanigans of the last three weeks. And what the opposition BJP
would say too was obvious. For, the country was witness to the
most cynical arrangement for power-sharing ever devised by anyone
at the Centre since Independence. It was a matter of shame for all
Indians that in the fiftieth year of the nation's independence it
was up against a bunch of amoral and corrupt politicians who had
shed all pretensions of political morality in order to grab power.
The arrangement under Deve Gowda last June at least had the benefit
of novelty; the one being foisted on the country under Gujral is
devoid of both sense and sensibility. For, by ensuring the
replacement of Gowda with Gujral, the Congress Party had asserted
its supremacy over the Government. If last June, it was essential
to devise a way out-of a hung Parliament, after the Congress Party
had confirmed its irresponsible character there was little or no
excuse to repeat the folly of last June. Gujral will now be the de
jure Prime Minister whereas the Congress President Sitaram Kesri
will be the de facto Super Prime Minister. It maybe that the
mealy-mouthed Gujral, who has got where he has by massaging the
over-sized egos of several political movers and shakers, would
obediently pay fealty to Kesri and other big daddies of the
Congress Party. It maybe that Gujral over the years had prospered
immensely by internalising such craven behaviour. Yet, he should
bear in mind the warning of his predecessor about maintaining the
dignity and the traditions of the office of the Prime Minister.
Gowda had indeed sensed that Gujral was aspiring for his job and
had specifically directed the warning at the then Foreign Minister.
The mere fact that the 'humble farmer' suspected that Gujral could
just do that should be enough to remove the veneer of
respectability that Gujral wears to hide his overweening ambition.
Never before had anyone with so little following and so little use
for the direct democratic process had managed to attain the highest
office that Indian democracy had to offer. Therefore it is to be
hoped that in his eagerness to keep Kesri suitably pleased, the UF
Prime Minister Mark II would desist from compromising the honour
and traditions of his office.
There was no doubt that the Congress Party had succeeded in
bringing the leaders of the UF on their knees. The leaders of the
UF, including the Communists of various variety, were on all fours
to beg for the renewal of the Congress support to their government.
Kesri was guilty of creating a climate of political instability,
He was equally guilty of blackmailing the UF into going slow on
pursuing certain criminal cases against him' But from his selfish
point of view, he had succeeded in making Congressmen the lord and
master of the UF Government. Gujral while seeking the confidence
of the House gave the game away when he volunteered that his
Government would not indulge in 'witchhunt.' That was the charge
that Kesri and other Congressmen facing serious criminal charges in
various courts had levelled against the Gowda Government. Clearly,
Gujral was under pressure to withdraw the investigations in the
murder of. Dr Tanwar. The deceased was a personal physician of
Kesri, Ghulam Nabi Azad and a couple of other Congressmen. An
investigation into the murder three years ago was demanded by none
other than Kesri's party colleague, Rajesh Pilot. If
investigations took the trail of murder too close to some
Congressmen, it was no fault of the former Prime Minister. Or if
the court in response to a public interest petition directed the
authorities to investigate the charges of bribery against Kesri at
the time of his election to the Rajya Sabha there was little the
Gowda Government could do to protect him. If the approver in the
JMM MPs bribery case, Shailendra Mahato, named Kesri as one of the
instigators Gowda could not be expected to stop him. If newspapers
brought out Kesri's sordid past when he had been jailed by the
British under the anti-hoarding drive, why should he make poor
Prime Minister pay for his exposure. Kesri, one of the most
obnoxious men to have entered politics, cannot be made to sit on
the pedestal of decency merely because the government of the day
was dependent on his party's support for its survival. Several of
Kesri's colleagues too are having to explain their corrupt and
criminal past in court-directed investigations. But instead of
welcoming the opportunity to cleanse the party, Kesri blew his top
and pulled down the Gowda Government. There could be no bigger
joke on the nation that he insisted on the change of the head while
retaining the same body. That is precisely why the new Government
inspires little confidence. For, its head, that is, Gujral, would
be in conjunction with Kesri but its body, that is, the rest of the
UF would by the sheer force of its anti-Congress past would pull in
other direction. This mismatch of objectives between the body and
the head would prove fatal for the United Front Prime Minister Mark
-II. Sooner than anyone imagines.
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