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On wonders whether the Prime Minister, Mr Deve Gowda and
his pal, Mr Narasimha Rao have ever wondered why the
Bharatiya Janata Party are making such rapid advances.
In trying to break up Uttar Pradesh in a desperate bid to
contain the BJP in the coming elections, they are in
danger of gifting a few more states to them. They might
try peering at the looking glass instead. What they are
likely to see is not inspiring. A recent example was the
indecent haste in bestowing cabinet status on former
prime ministers (read Narasimha Rao). Given the level at
which both operate, it is not an unfair question to ask
whether the hasty decision, without reference to cabinet,
was intended only to allow the former prime minister to
retain all his personal staff at public expense. The
clarification offered confirms every suspicion of the
Government's motives. Can it be that cabinet status was
intended to attract to itself immunity from prosecution
without the prior approval of the President? Following
the practice followed by Mr Rao when he was in office,
such approval would not be recommended by the Gowda
Government. This would be an enormous convenience to Mr
Rao and if disputed the matter could be prolonged in the
courts on a question of interpretation alone. This is
not a baseless fear. The manner in which the Lakhubhai
Pathak case and Mr Rao's involvement in it has been
remanded to a new magistrate, to be nominated by his
Lordship, the Chief justice of Delhi High Court, Mr
justice M. J. Rao, is a case in point.
Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the other hand, could not
have been snore correct in his reaction to the imposition
of the facilities upon himself. In rejecting the offer,
he makes some significant points. He notes that the
decision was pushed through in a hurry without examining
or at least making public the reasons why it was decided
to confer such a status. He is right. He says he would
have expected the proposal to be placed before Parliament
so that political parties were able to express their
opinion. Right again. The public, he adds shrewdly, has
a right to know. The manner in which he became aware of
the decision confirms every suspicion of the Government's
motives. He was not consulted. No communication was
addressed to him. He was not even sent a copy of the
order issued by the Home Ministry. He was left to find
out from newspapers. The one theory hat fits all the
facts is that Mr Rao was the only one intended to be
benefited. All former prime ministers were included only
because they could not be left out.
Thanks to the antics of Prime Minister Deve Gowda and the
far from United Front, the BJP appears as the only party
fit for governance. And the one who appears prime
ministerial material is Atal Behari Vajpayee. It is an
irony of epic proportions, reminiscent of Greek tragedy
at its best or worst depending on the point of view, that
a coalition fashioned on the single plank of keeping the
BJP out of power should be working overtime to achieve
exactly the opposite result. Rushing to Tirupati will
not help. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars...
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