HVK Archives: Sena-BJP govt yet to cross the hurdle
Sena-BJP govt yet to cross the hurdle - The Economic Times
Pramod Pagedar
()
21 July 1997
Title: Sena-BJP govt yet to cross the hurdle
Author: Pramod Pagedar
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: July 21, 1997
Ten days after the violence following the desecration of Babasaheb
Ambedkar's statue in north-eastern Mumbai suburb Of Ghatkopar, guessing
still goes on in the political circles here whether or not the beleaguered
Shiv Sena-BJP government is likely to be dismissed by the Centre.
The speculations about the coalition government's dismissal have been
fuelled by the alacrity with which the United Front government reacted to
the Ghatkopar incident followed by the attempt made by a mob of Sena
activists to ambush Congress leader and Sena's bete noire Chhagan Bhujbal.
Prime minister I K Gujral promptly deputed Union home minister Indrajit
Gupta to assess the fallout of the events in Mumbai. He couldn't have
afforded to be lax on the issue when the demand for dismissal of the
Sena-BJP government was personally made to him by the Congress chief
Sitaram Kesri himself.
According to reliable sources, Mr Kesri was virtually bullied into making
the demand for the dismissal by his party rival Sharad Pawar. The Maratha
maverick descended on the Congress president's residence with a posse of
party MPs from Maharashtra and insisted with Mr Kesri to petition the prime
minister for dismissal of the alliance government in the state.
The central issue involved 'm the Mumbai episode was the death of 10 Dalits
and the attack on Mr Bhujbal who happens to be both a prominent OBC figure
and leader of the opposition in the state assembly.
With this being the main plank behind Mr Pawar's push, it would have been
politically incorrect for Mr Kesri, a self-proclaimed champion of Dalits
and backwards, to oppose the move to demand the Sena-BJP government's
dismissal under the Article 356 of the Constitution. He, therefore, had to
go along with the move, albeit reluctantly.
The Congress has a legitimate political right in capitalising on the
Sena-BJP government's discomfiture over the backlash triggered by the
Ghatkopar incident and it has done so with a gusto.
However, the question now being asked in the political circles here, even
within the Congress, is - will Mr Kesri invest enough value in getting the
demand for dismissal of the Sena-BJP government executed by the Gujral
government?
A section of the Congress reportedly believes that Mr Kesri is unlikely to
carry his demand for dismissal to its logical conclusion if the major
beneficiary of such a step is going to be Mr Pawar himself. The Congress
president, the sources point out, will do nothing wittingly or unwittingly
to help Mr Pawar regain some of his lost political ground in Maharashtra.
Mr Kesri is more likely to keep up his anti-BJP-Sena government charade for
the coming few weeks to consolidate his pro-Dalit image and also to divert
attention in Parliament from the Congress party's dubious role in saving
the Laloo Prasad Yadav government during confidence vote in the Bihar
Assembly. The Congress chief might even compromise with Mr Pawar to ward
off pressure on the Mumbai incident by co-opting the latter on the CWC
during the scheduled party elections early next month.
On the United Front side, the prime minister is saddled with the management
of too many contradictions to invite another trouble by giving in to the
Congress party's demand for the Sena-BJP government's dismissal. The UF
may take such a drastic step only as a parting kick if the Gujral
government were to fall in the near future. "If we (the UF government) are
to go down, we will take the Sena-BJP government too with us. That will be
our last laugh on the communal alliance," senior local Janata Dal leader
from Maharashtra, who matters in the UF politics, is believed to have told
his supporters here.
The state governor Mr P C Alexander is believed to be averse to the
dismissal idea because a likely backlash of such a step could trigger on
the law and order front in the state. And that seems to the Sena-BJP
government's best bait to stay on in office.
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