HVK Archives: Heavyweights' bout: Laloo wins the first round
Heavyweights' bout: Laloo wins the first round - The Asian Age
Parwez Hafeez
()
16 July 1997
Title: Heavyweights' bout: Laloo wins the first round
Author: Parwez Hafeez
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: July 16, 1997
As had been predicted in this column two months ago, Laloo Prasad Yadav
refused to give up even in the face of seemingly impossible odds. He stuck
to his guns even when it seemed that he was completely isolated in the
Janata Dal and the United Front. To describe his predicament he himself
found a parallel in Saddam Hussein. The present situation is so fluid and
the scenario so muddled that it is not yet possible to say whether Laloo is
fighting a losing battle. What has, however, been unambiguously established
is the fact that Laloo is fighting. And, perhaps, he intends to fight to
the finish.
In the ongoing battle of nerves, Round One seems to have gone in his
favour. After splitting the Janata Dal and forming his own Rashtriya
Janata Dal, Laloo has demonstrated his will to remain in the driver's seat,
come what may. The apparently beleaguered Yadav leader has, meanwhile,
played his cards so assiduously that today he does not seem so isolated as
he did, say a fortnight ago.
It is true that the Left Front, the Samajwadi Party and, of course, the
Deve Gowda-Sharad-Paswan nexus in the Janata Dal are determined to remove
him from power and bar his re-entry into the United Front. But the support
that he has received recently from some other constituents of the Front
like the TMC, DMK and a faction of the JD in Karnataka must have come as a
shot in Laloo's arms.
With one master stroke, the wily chief minister has succeeded in sparking
differences, if not division, in the ranks of the various constituents of
the Front. To top it all, the Prime Minister, despite making vague
statements like "corrupt leaders must relinquish power," has not deserted
him yet. To further consolidate his position, Laloo is also making
overtures to the Bahujan Samaj Party. Last but not the least, an ace up his
sleeve is his supposed proximity to Congress president Sitaram Kesri.
Today Laloo is presiding over a party where he is the undisputed monarch
with no fear of facing any challenge to his authority. So, in a way, his
leaving the JD, has proved a blessing in disguise. What has Sharad Yadav,
on the other hand, achieved by his intransigence? He is the president of a
party which is progressively heading towards its premature doom.
In Uttar Pradesh, where the party was born nine years ago, it has all but
vanished. The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have, over the
years, pushed it to the periphery in the state by successfully usurping its
support base. Orissa, another stronghold, had also slipped out of the
party's hands and Biju Patnaik's death may well prove to be the last nail
in its coffin. In Karnataka, the party was mercifully not weakened
considerably by the expulsion of Ramakrishna Hegde. However, today the
state party unit is a divided house. There is every likelihood that a
faction of the JD in Karnataka would eventually cross over to the Laloo's
camp, not out of any love and loyalty for him but out of a strong antipathy
and animus for H.D. Deve Gowda who succeeded in making several enemies in
the state JD unit, after becoming the Prime Minister of the country.
Thus if Laloo's position is considered as gloomy, the position of his
fierce detractors is gloomier. Deve Gowda and Sharad Yadav have certainly
succeeded in driving Laloo out of the JD but in doing so they have struck a
near-fatal blow to their own party. What is it that people say about
cutting your nose to spite your face?
One does not hold any brief for the Bihar chief minister. In fact, readers
of Behind the Story, are witness to the fact that this columnist has never
hesitated to flay the political chicanery, moral turpitude and economic
bunglings of Laloo Yadav. However, one cannot help feeling disgusted at
the homilies that the self-righteous JD leaders have been doling out to
Laloo. Their moral pressure on Laloo is nothing but sham.
Had the JD and Left parties, who have recently launched a crusade against
Laloo Yadav, demonstrated an iota of moral outrage earlier, the situation
would not have come to this pass. Their clamour for Laloo's resignation is
clearly dictated by political expediency and not by some moral convictions.
If they were really the uncompromising champion of honesty and probity in
public life that they have been projecting themselves out to be, they would
not have glossed over Laloo's role in the multi-crore fodder seam for so
long. Had they actually been perturbed by the blatant looting of the
government coffers, they would not have remained tight-lipped for more than
a year on the issue.
In January 1996 when the 950-crore animal husbandry department scandal came
to light and a defiant Laloo initially refused to order an inquiry, these
leaders supported him. But when stung by the Patna high court's order for a
CBI inquiry and unnerved by the BJP-Samata campaign against him, the Bihar
chief minister held a garib rally in March last year, the entire galaxy of
the JD leaders including V.P. Singh, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav, S.R.
Bommai and also CPI(M) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, who is
today the most voluble critic of Laloo, had descended on the Gandhi maidan
in Patna to give the chief minister the much-needed moral support.
Each of them had tried to outdo the other in showering encomiums on Laloo
Yadav. He was even hailed as the -future Prime Minister of the country.
Today when Laloo says that he will resign only after the charges against
him are proved, these leaders are outraged. How conveniently they have
forgotten that they are the ones who gave him this bright idea in the first
place. Scoffing at the Opposition's demand for Laloo's resignation for his
involvement in the seam, V.P. Singh had declared that as long as the
charges against him were not proved in a court of law, Laloo could not be
pronounced guilty.
Even after the CBI sought the governor's sanction for prosecuting Laloo,
the Front leaders did not have the moral courage to prevail upon an adamant
party president to quit. It was their collective pusillanimity that
emboldened him into shamelessly announcing that he would rule Bihar even
from the prison. It was their impotence that encouraged an alleged culprit
to issue a threat to turn the party into ashes and the state into a river
of blood if he was dislodged or arrested. Laloo would never have dared to
demonstrate such bluster and belligerence if these hypocritical leaders had
taken a principled stand against his misdeeds.
The root of the JD's gradual decline and disintegration lies in its
genesis. It was to fight the common enemy the Congress - that leaders of
various parties like the Lok Dal, Jan Morcha and the Janata Party had
joined hands and formed the Janata Dal under V.P. Singh's leadership. They
could, however, never become a cohesive and integrated organisation because
of their inherent differences. Since it was the removal of the Congress
from power that was the cementing force, the moment this objective was
achieved. the various faction leaders started fighting among themselves for
larger slices of the power-cake.
The internal fissures generated by the over-ambitiousness of petty leaders
has so far resulted in four splits in the JD, since its formation. The
full-throated proclamations of such lofty ideals, as ushering in a
corruption-free and secular society where social justice would prevail,
have been all but forgotten. What one witnesses instead is a sordid game
of realpolitik all around. And what is disgusting is that this game is not
even being played by the rules of the book.
(Parwez Hafeez is a writer and a columnist)
Back
Top
|
