THE NATION

PRAMOD PUSHKARNA Gowda and Gujral: ripping apart the JD forced to decide on its relationship with ■ RACE COURSE ROAD ■ the RJD. Given the Sharad-Deve Gowda group’s antipathy to Laloo, the decision PRABHU CHAWLA is easy to guess. That will lead to the 16 RJD Lok Sabha members, currently be- hind Gujral, withdrawing support— leaving the prime minister more Hatchet Man or Fall Guy? friendless than he already is. If mutually destructive factionalism Gujral has opted to deal with financial issues himself was not enough, the JD also faces an ever-present threat from Kesri. Each WHY IS PRIME MINISTER INDER KUMAR GUJRAL FEELING time the party takes another step to- acrophobic in a plummeting political market for his United Front wards irrelevance, Kesri feels that (UF) Government? While P. Chidambaram, his most business- much closer to his goal of making the savvy cabinet colleague, is making a frenzied bid to collect addi- Congress the fulcrum of any future tional revenue, Gujral is preoccupied in drawing-room non-BJP coalition. Kesri has been wean- discourses with POPs (pals of the prime minister). There is a ing away the JD’s allies, Mulayam being widening gulf between the prime minister and his super finance minister the latest. He hurt the JD most when he over key economic issues. Instead of sorting things out, Gujral has opted to tied up with Laloo. A desperate JD is now deal with financial issues himself. Recently, he met economists, CEOs of wooing the Samata Party, Laloo’s arch- banks, exporters, secretaries of economic ministries and industrialists to ■ foe in Bihar, but the party is playing flaunt his interest in economic management. hard to get. Says Nitish Kumar, Samata Gujral’s unusual and direct interest in economic and trade matters is be- leader: “We already have an alliance ing seen as a departure from the prime minister’s conventional role of for- with the BJP. At present there is no mulating policies and handing down guidelines. According to finance and change from that position.” commerce ministry sources, the PMO is now directly handling international The JD has essentially been reduced trade matters and views of ministries are rarely taken into account. On its Last Legs to two states: Karnataka and Orissa. What intrigues PM-watchers is his keenness to interact directly Here too, groupism is evident. In his with the bureaucratic whizkids in the commerce and industry ministries home state of Karnataka, Deve Gowda rather than their ministers. Since Gujral has virtually split the party. If Chief has never handled any economic min- Personality clashes, factionalism and the ever-present Deve Gowda won a minor victory Minister J.H. Patel has managed to keep istry in his career, he is highly dependent when he forced the party leadership to MLAs together, it is because nobody on his close aides and POPs for back- threat from the Congress leave the party tottering organise the sankalp rally at barely a wants to lose power. “The situation will ground papers which are invariably at week’s notice. The ostensible purpose change once the elections draw near,” variance with official positions. Even his By JAVED M. ANSARI out if interrupted. Later, when Deve was to launch his nationwide mass con- warns a party MP from the state. cabinet colleagues have been publicly Gowda asked Gujral to listen to the tact programme. “I know what the peo- Though B.L. Shankar, the new pres- speaking against Chidambaram’s stand HOSPITAL WOULD PERHAPS party’s views on his administration’s ple want,” Deve Gowda told INDIA TODAY. ident of the state JD, has been striving on various recommendations of the be the most appropriate setting performance, he refused. Gujral left the “Just give me three months.” His strat- hard for peace, he has met with little suc- Fifth Pay Commission. for the headquarters of the meeting after hosting a lunch for JD egy: project Gujral as a Congress crony cess. R.L. Jalappa and S.R. Bommai, On the face of it, there is nothing wrong Janata Dal (JD). The party has leaders. In doing so, he made his isola- and contrast this image with his own Union ministers and senior party lead- with Gujral’s interventionist approach. Abeen in the intensive care unit tion very apparent. apparent independence. Deve Gowda ers, are not even on speaking terms with But it rings a bell. In the past, other prime longer than anybody can remember. It Given its precarious condition, it hopes this will impress party workers. Deve Gowda. Gujral has not helped by at- ministers’ intervention in economic ministries were aimed at either con- is a chronicle of a death foretold. Dis- has been an achievement for the JD to Deve Gowda has also persuaded se- tempting to bring Ramakrishna Hegde, taining their finance ministers’ growing popularity or curbing their initia- unity has dogged the JD from its very get the prime minister’s post twice in a nior leaders, including the party chief, whom Deve Gowda expelled from the tives in macro-economic management. Stunned by V.P. Singh’s enormous birth in 1988. Since I.K. Gujral re- row. Ironically, this has weakened the to propose at the next UF Steering Com- party in 1996, back into the fold. acceptability among the chattering classes, ejected him from placed H.D. Deve Gowda as prime min- party by creating two power centres. mittee meeting on September 15 that Life is no better in Orissa. Bereft of North Block. Even N.D. Tiwari who replaced Singh was eased out of the Fi- ister this April, the divide has only The consequence is the strange phe- the 13-party alliance be given an the unifying presence of the late Biju nance Ministry for the same reason. Only P.V. Narasimha Rao gave his fi- become accentuated. After Laloo Ya- nomenon of an incumbent prime min- organisational structure in every state. Patnaik, the JD hardly resembles a nance minister a free hand for five years. But then, dav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) broke ister and his immediate predecessor This is bound to cause problems. The UF party which ruled the state only a year Manmohan lacked the political touch of V.P. Singh and Tiwari. away in July, the JD’s strength in the Lok bickering at every opportunity. may brush aside its internal contradic- ago. Gujral’s soft approach to the Con- Chidambaram is yet to acquire that political class and brass. But he has Sabha fell from 43 to 27. Even the rul- Still smarting from his ouster six tions nationally, but it cannot do so at gress is making partymen impatient. emerged as a darling of the chatterati which forms the core of Gujral’s own ing United Front (UF) coalition appears months ago, Deve Gowda is certain he the regional level. “To survive in Orissa, we will have to constituency. Chidambaram’s upbeat, debonair profile makes the urban, ed- to have reconciled itself to the in- can bounce back. He is angry about Gu- In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, the take on the Congress,” says Asoke Das, ucated voters feel good about him. A hands-on minister, Chidambaram has evitability of the party disintegrating. jral’s proximity to Congress President UF will have to choose between peren- state unit president. Another section of been the prime minister’s strongest ally in dealing with troublesome part- This past week the JD’s national Sitaram Kesri, who was nial enemies Mulayam the Orissa JD is so tired of the ineffectual ners. Chidambaram has been effective in arguing against the Left at cabinet executive met in Delhi and held a sankalp primarily responsible for To survive, Singh Yadav and Ajit top brass that it is considering walking meetings without offending them. So far he has done an admirable job of rally the next day. Despite the orches- his exit. Convinced that Singh. Mulayam, in any over to the BJP. straddling two divergent political traditions in the UF. trated unity at the rally on September Gujral is a political cipher, the JD needs case, is more keen on join- Deve Gowda believes he can rouse Chidambaram’s initial dynamism has been curbed by imperatives of 12, the meeting earlier saw fireworks. Deve Gowda is seeking to ing hands with the Con- the party by galvanising the workers. compromise. Some of his promises like insurance deregulation and the di- Gujral accused the party leadership of project himself as the another mass gress than carrying the But that seems a tall task. At its creation, lution of urban land ceilings remain unfulfilled. In the absence of strong sup- not backing his Government. “You may party’s natural leader. He leader of rest of the UF along. In the JD was blessed with a charismatic port from the top, his attempt to downsize the Government and privatise not like me but this is still your govern- has found a useful ally in JD Tamil Nadu, the ruling leader in V.P. Singh. Today, it is like a de- loss-making state undertakings have been thwarted. A stage has come now ment,” he reportedly said. When a party President Sharad Yadav, V.P. Singh’s DMK and the CPI(M) are moralised—and rapidly shrinking— where Gujral has to decide whether his finance minister is going to be his general secretary tried to intervene, the who consults him even calibre. ranged against each other. army without a general. To survive, it hatchet man or a fall guy. prime minister asserted he would walk over trivial issues. In Bihar, the UF will be needs another V.P. Singh. ■

000 INDIA TODAY ♦ MARCH 00, 1996 MARCH 00, 1996 ♦ INDIA TODAY 000