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T V R Shenoy

Had Vajpayee refused, to whom could the President have turned?

On March 10, 1998, the President called Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Rashtrapati Bhavan to ask him if he could form a ministry. Mercifully for this nation, the answer was in the positive.

The Congress and the Communists will probably cavil at my choice of words, but the BJP leader's acceptance was indeed a mercy. Think about it this way: had Vajpayee refused, to whom could the President have turned?

Had the Congress, the second largest party in the 12th Lok Sabha, elected the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party? Could the United Front decide whether it was actually 'united'? I am not debating high constitutional issues, leave alone morality. I am merely raising questions of fact.

When the BJP and its allies unanimously projected Vajpayee as their candidate for prime minister, there were loud howls from the Congress and the United Front."It is undemocratic!" ran one complaint, "They are infringing on the right of elected MPs to elect their own leader!"

First, it is a peculiar definition of democracy that gives voters no voice in choosing their own chief executive. Second, as I recall, Deve Gowda and Gujral weren't elected by their MPs, but nominated by the United Front steering committee.

Assume if you will that the Congress and the United Front have turned a new leaf. If so, why haven't they lived up to their own words? The majority of the results were available by the evening of Wednesday, March 4. Given that every corner of India is connected by air, the newly-elected MPs could have arrived in Delhi no later than the evening of Thursday, March 5.

But the Congress Parliamentary Party hadn't even been summoned as late as the evening of March 10. And party bosses really can't complain they were taken by surprise. Everybody knew the President was only waiting for the Election Commission to formally notify the constitution of the 12th Lok Sabha. Again, the election schedule had been publicised well in advance.

Instead of inviting MPs to state their choice -- as they had lectured the BJP and its allies -- the Congress high command left the issue to Sonia Gandhi's discretion! Of course, everybody knows that the average Congressman is content to let the Nehru-Gandhis think for him/her. But after making such a song and dance about the 'undemocratic' attitude of the BJP-led front, couldn't the Congress at least pretend to have an election?

But no, some Sonia bhakt comes up with the lunatic idea of making her chairman of the Congress Parliamentary Board. They couldn't make her leader of the CPP since she isn't a member of either House of Parliament. (This ploy was used by Indira Gandhi in 1977 when she lost). At this point, somebody figured out that the presidency of the Congress was better yet.

Unfortunately, Chacha Kesri has got to like the feel of that chair ever since he ousted Narasimha Rao. He agreed to quit with obvious bad grace, all but accusing Sonia Gandhi of power lust. "Haven't you seen what has been happening over the past two months?" he snapped at a press conference, "Can any self-respecting man put up with it?"

Self-respect is an alien virtue to most Congressmen. Sharad Pawar is the most obvious candidate to lead the party in Parliament after the Congress's performance in Maharashtra. An alternative is Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy who kept the party's citadel in Andhra Pradesh intact. (Between them, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh account for over a third of the Congress MPs). But Sonia Gandhi can't trust either man. Will Pawar and Reddy stomach the obvious insult?

How about the United Front? Well, their problem was best described by the late Biju Patnaik in an interview just before his death: "They are like a bunch of lobsters clawing at each other!"

The United Front and the Congress went to the polls without resolving the leadership issue, and tried to make a virtue out of necessity. That ploy obviously didn't work -- as Digvijay Singh of Madhya Pradesh and Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh admit today.

The Congress and the United Front were too busy settling internal squabbles to give the country a prime minister. Whatever they say now, the fact is that neither staked a claim. Was India expected to wait forever as the Congress and the United Front tried to settle an issue that should have been dealt with two months ago?

After 18 months of arrogance and irresponsibility, I thought the United Front and the Congress couldn't surprise me any more. I was obviously wrong!

T V R Shenoy