HVK Archives: Pawar may still spring a surprise
Pawar may still spring a surprise - The Indian Express
Sujata Anandan
()
5 April 1997
Title : Pawar may still spring a surprise
Author : Sujata Anandan
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : April 5, 1997
Sharad Pawar hasn't yet given up the idea of engineering a split in
the Congress. And as such, looking for ways out of the impasse, his
supporters believe that a formula could emerge whereby Congress MPs
might vote against the party whip, if Sitaram Kesri fads to climb
down or come up with some other face-saving act before April 11.
Pawar and his supporters are said to believe that the move to
withdraw support from the Deve Gowda Government was the right one,
but premature and has only succeeded in driving the fractious UF
constituents together.
"We have the example of Indira Gandhi's support to Charan Singh
before us. She was confident about going to the polls. Kesri is
not. Under the circumstances one side has to give in. And we
expect we will have a solution to this within the next two days," a
party MP present at one of Pawar's confabulations with core
supporters said.
However, Kesri confidantes, assigned the task of closely watching
all the moves he makes, appear to be preparing to cut Pawar down to
size. They plan to bring into the open Pawar's running feud with a
top political leader of Uttar Pradesh who is closely watching his
growing rapport with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
In fact, SP legislators from Maharashtra have in recent days been
seeking a rapprochement with the Maratha strongman at the
instruction of their party chief, and this is a fact that has not
missed the eye of Kesri supporters.
Accordingly, they are digging into the roots of this new found
friendship between the two leaders and have homed in on an apparent
seam in the Union Defence Ministry when Pawar was the Defence
Minister.
It concerns a deal worth Rs 35 crore to purchase sophisticated
tanks from Yugoslavia in 1992 at a time when that country was
breaking up.
The fact was turned up by a recent report of the Comptroller and
Auditor General. The seam itself is believed to be on the lines of
the infamous urea deal: the money appears to have been paid but the
tanks never arrived in India.
Pawar detractors believe Mulayam has helped to cover up the seam
and hence the growing co-operation between the two, including
Pawar's repeated calls for an alliance of the Congress with the SP.
Moreover, they are beginning to see even more devious designs in
Pawar's cosying up to Prime Minister Deve Gowda (he accompanied the
Prime Minister in his official aircraft to Calcutta, Cuttack and
Ahmedabad all in the space of a single month).
Kesri supporters believe that Gowda, while ordering investigations
against all other Congress leaders, stalled possible probes against
Pawar in return for the latter's support in propping up his
government.
"He was made the floor leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha in a
deal allegedly brokered by Ghulam Nabi Azad.
So what happened to the airbus seam against Azad? It got squashed
after the initial investigation," a senior Congressman alleged.
Partymen from Maharashtra are unable to understand why Kesri
accorded so much importance to Pawar after dismissing him as
allegedly the "wealthiest politician in the country" during the
Congress foundation day celebrations in Bombay on December 28.
"Five days later, he was made the floor leader. Now Kesri himself
has to contend with Pawar's manoeuvrings," a senior Congress leader
from the state said.
Kesri is said to be resentful of the fact that Pawar never
condemned the allegedly inspired investigations against him while
allegedly poking fun at him in private as heading 4 Congress
comprising "three. miyans (Azad, Tariq Anwar and Ahmed Patel) and
one Meira (Kumar)".
As a result he has decided not to involve Pawar in any official
negotiations with the UF on behalf of the Congress, a Kesri
confidante said.
And if the alleged scams do catch up with him, Pawar might well be
left to himself, he added.
Back
Top
|
