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'Partisan' charge upsets President

George Iype in New Delhi

As Opposition parties grapple with insurmountable odds to form a new government, President K R Narayanan is said to be upset that the outgoing Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition has launched a vicious campaign against him.

Accusations questioning Narayanan's "discretion" in asking Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to seek a vote of confidence on April 17 have appeared in the media in the past few days. More over, a number of senior BJP leaders and pro-BJP legal experts have held the President responsible for plunging the country into a political crisis.

While Urban Development Minister Ram Jethmalani and former prime minister Chandra Shekhar called special press conferences to oppose the President's action, many articles dubbing the President as "partisan and pro-Congress" have appeared in the media.

Officials at Rashtrapati Bhavan said Narayanan is "deeply distressed" by this public campaign against the President's office as he believes that "he has done nothing unconstitutional to invite these kinds of virulent criticism."

"The President still feels his decision to ask Vajpayee to seek a trust vote was morally and constitutionally right as the government was reduced to a hopeless minority after the AIADMK withdrew support," the official told Rediff On The NeT.

He said in particular, the President felt had he not taken prompt action, Parliament would have been stalled by the Opposition for days and the passage of crucial Budget and money bills would have been difficult.

"But no one, including the President, realised that the government would be brought down by a margin of just one vote. Therefore, to accuse the President of being pro-Congress and partisan is very unbecoming of political leaders," the official stated.

He said it was to avoid any criticism of partisanship towards ruling or Opposition parties that the President has asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi to produce written proofs of support from 272 MPs.

But BJP leaders now privately state that there was no need for Narayanan to request Vajpayee to seek a trust vote because the BJP government had not failed in meeting its constitutional obligations.

They say the President should have washed his hands of the whole issue as there were two best courses of action available: First, since Parliament was in session the Opposition could always move a no-confidence motion against Vajpayee; second, the Opposition had the opportunity to defeat the government in the Lok Sabha by not passing the Budget and money bills.

Before the fall of the BJP government, former President R Venkataraman had argued that the constitutional provisions did not warrant Prime Minister Vajpayee to seek a trust vote, if a coalition partner pulled out of the government.

He buttressed his argument by suggesting that while he himself asked the V P Singh government in 1990 to seek a trust vote when the BJP withdrew support, the only reason then was that Parliament was not in session. Had Parliament been in session, he would not have asked V P Singht to seek a confidence vote, Venkataraman said.

A BJP official alleged that Narayanan's "behaviour was only to help Sonia Gandhi to become prime minister as he himself used to be a Congress leader close to the Nehru family for years now."

"Therefore, if the Congress president fails to submit before him the promised list of 272 MPs, Narayanan should either reinstate the BJP government because we are ready to prove our majority support once again in the Lok Sabha," the BJP official told Rediff On The NeT.

The BJP leadership fears that even if Sonia fails to provide the list of 272 MPs, the President has the powers to invite the Congress to form a government as the Vajpayee government has been voted out.

But Rashtrapati Bhavan officials have termed the BJP's fresh demand "unreasonable as the President might not give a second change to prove a majority to a defeated leader."

"It is improper on the BJP's part to denigrate the office of the President which upholds the dignity of all democratic institutions in the country," he added.

As the political crisis prolongs into a second week, the President debates his future move by consulting constitutional experts about the viability of reinstating the Vajpayee government. Officials said if Sonia fails to prove the numbers and Vajpayee claims he has the numbers with him, there is a slender possibility that the President would invite him to prove his majority in the House once again.

In the next couple of days, Narayanan will discuss with constitutional experts the question of stability if he feels neither a BJP nor a Congress government can provide a cohesive and lasting coalition government given the present political equations.

Thus, the President could veer around to the view that a mid-term poll is the best bet to resolve the present political crisis.

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