Commentary/Saisuresh Sivaswamy

A clean government, but it can't oust Laloo

It is remarkable that within a week of his talk of providing a clean and honest administration, Prime Minister I K Gujral has been called upon to live up to his rhetoric in the matter of the Central Bureau of Investigation versus Laloo Prasad Yadav.

And the man overtly fond of rearing buffaloes in his backyard -- how poetic that he is an accused in the fodder scam! -- and who came within spitting distance of the prime ministership just a fortnight ago, suddenly finds himself against the ropes. Since elections are not due for sometime yet, he needn't fear the repercussions of being implicated in the fodder scam among the masses.

What he needs to worry about is the fact that the prime minister cannot continue speechifying on probity in public life when his own party president and a leading light of the United Front is an accused in a scandal. What needs remembering is that the charges are not being fielded by Yadav's political rivals but by the government's investigating arm.

What also needs remembering here is the contrasting response of Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Kishinchand Advani who, on being implicated in the hawala case, resigned his presidentship and vowed not to contest elections till his name was cleared by the courts -- which has since been cleared.

But to expect the Janata Dal president to do the same is asking for too much, presumably his own advisors cautioning him against such a move lest he be termed a camp-follower of the BJP. Obviously, the new political culture that the prime minister spoke of early in his tenure does not cover chief ministers, various party presidents, regional satraps, maybe even legislators and sundry corporators. In effect, Gujral has the mandate to impose it only on himself, and perhaps a few other in Union council of ministers who may suffer from a sensitive skin.

That, in other words, is the price the country will have to pay for being governed for a delicate balance of political parties. Since the numerical strength and support of each and everyone is critical for the survival of the government -- just witness the rumpus over the 20-member Tamil Maanila Congress staying out of the government -- the prime minister is in the enviable position on merely making his mind known and not imposing it.

For instance, if he proceeds against his ministerial colleague for his involvement in the fodder scam -- which he is well within his rights to do -- then the Bihar chief minister will ask the other members of the council from his state to also quit in protest. And since the Bihar chief minister is also president of the Janata Dal -- a major constituent of the United Front -- the havoc this will have on the government's stability can well be imagined.

No wonder G K Moopanar has decided to allow the TMC join the government despite a groundswell within his own party against doing so. For the last 10 days out of power must have shown him what could be achieved by being in such a terminal government.

If the Congress party is not insisting on the Bihar chief minister's ouster, it is, one, because its own leaders are also involved in the scam; and, two and more important, because it does not want to do anything that will rock the government at the stage. It knows that it has already had its fill of odium for the shock treatment it administered to H D Deve Gowda, and it does not want a second dose so soon, not when it has realised that the constituents of the United Front will themselves finish the job initiated by Congress president Sitaram Kesri.

That is one of the important fallouts of Kesri's Easter Day treat for the nation. The succession battle witnessed among the Front constituents after March 30 has brought to the fore subterranean tensions among the Front constituents -- the Left hates Moopanar, Yadav hates Moopanar, Paswan hates Yadav, everyone hates Bommai etc etc. It is political checkmating all around, leaving the path open for the humble pawn.

It should be interesting to see how the Janata Dal overcomes this crisis that may well end up unsettling the arrangement in place in New Delhi. Pushing Yadav into resigning is the obvious thing to do, but the tragedy for the Dal is that he is the only mass leader left in its fold. As the embattled chief minister points out, the masses may not yet think of him as guilty. That will come only when the courts have pronounced their verdict, and that till then he is deemed innocent. Which, as arguments go, is all right, but that does not take into account the fact that in India, the leaders are expected to live like Caesar's wife.

The JD obviously is in no position to ask its president to step down till his name is cleared. Yadav is in no mood to do so voluntarily; he will have to be packed off, kicking and dragging. The Left, an important ideological pillar of the government, will not be able to stomach Yadav's continuance in office; the TMC, already smarting under the northern upper cut, will pay back in full and the United Front convenor cannot take a decision on such a critical issue.

Any leader who says Yadav needn't resign before the court verdict will run the risk of being termed amoral by the intelligentsia and the newspapers... All in all, the coming days will see the United Front in the convulsions of yet another crisis.

And, given the cross-currents that have emerged among the partners since I'affaire Deve Gowda, this won't be the last one to buffet the lurching ship.

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