Congress defers decision on withdrawal of support yet again!
As the Congress-United Front deadlock continued, hectic parleys seem to steer all the major players to the view that a mid-term poll should be avoided at any cost.
Though the United Front has rejected the Congress's demand -- that the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham ministers be dropped from the Gujral government -- the ruling alliance has kept its communication channels with the Congress open.
Some UF leaders are understood to have held informal discussions with Congress president Sitaram Kesri, Sharad Pawar and other senior leaders on Tuesday.
Sources said both the Congress and UF leaders are trying to find a face-saving formula to retain the present political arrangement. Kesri and Gujral, one source claimed, had come to a secret understanding. ''They will sink their differences, and Gujral will continue in power,'' he claimed.
Kesri has reportedly discussed two proposals mooted by the UF to save the Gujral government. The first proposal, coming from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and Defence
Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, involved setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to study the Jain Commission's findings. There are not many takers for the proposal in the UF itself as it involves dropping the DMK temporarily from the Gujral ministry.
Another proposal suggested that a three-judge committee be set up on former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. This proposal, too, has few takers even as the delay in taking a decision on the issue has angered many of Kesri's detractors, including Congress Working Committee members Arjun Singh, Jitendra Prasada and Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy.
The CWC , which met briefly on Monday night
after receiving the UF reply, did not meet on Tuesday even though Pawar told the media this morning that, ''The CWC will take the final decision tonight.''
However, Kesri conferred with leaders across the Congress spectrum -- A K Antony, Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh among others -- throughout the day
Asked if the Congress was trying to save the Gujral government because of internal differences, former Union minister K Karunakaran -- a hawk -- said, ''The question does not arise.'' Another hawk, CWC member Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, declared that, ''The Congress cannot reverse its stand now."
"The CWC will meet tomorrow and take a final decision,'' the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister told Rediff On The NeT late on Tuesday night.
''The delay certainly does not mean the Congress is backing out from its demand,'' CWC member Pranab Mukherjee told Rediff On The NeT.
''We are not ready for a compromise on the issue.''
Dissident Congress leader Rajesh Pilot, however, felt, ''It is ridiculous that the decision is taking so long. I fear the Congress is losing its credibility in the present crisis."
The feeling among UF partners and many Congress MPs is that Sonia Gandhi loyalists like Arjun Singh and Jitendra Prasada are forcing Kesri to pull the plug on the Gujral government.
Kesri has told party leaders that the Jain Commission report will boomerang on the party if a snap poll is called. "He has unwittingly got into a point of no return. He would very much like to change tack now, but it is too late," a Congress MP told Rediff On The NeT.
"I feel the Congress is not ready for a poll at this juncture," says party MP T Subbirami Reddy who led 50-odd first-time MPs to President K R Narayanan yesterday. They urged the President not to dissolve Parliament. ''Rajiv Gandhi's assassination is an emotional issue for the Congress. But emotions will not help us at the hustings," he added.
The likes of Reddy, therefore, eagerly await Kesri's ''fifth miracle'', which, the Congress chief told a group of young MPs like Ramesh Chennithala, is coming. The first four miracles being former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's ouster as Congress president, Kesri's elevation as party president, then prime minister H D Deve Gowda's removal and Gujral's installation as prime minister.
The miracle must come soon. Any further delay in taking a decision may force several Congress MPs to cross over to the BJP, fear party sources.
Significantly, the Tamil Maanila Congress met today to take stock of the situation. Its leader G K Moopanar is understood to be at the forefront of efforts to find a way out of the impasse.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India today reiterated its stand that only an election could end the present crisis even as the Bharatiya Janata Party, smelling an opportunity to form the government, met the President.
George Iype, Tara Shankar Sahay, Syed Firdaus Ashraf, UNI
The Congress Crisis, November 1997
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