Closet Ambition?

IT was a well-calculated risk. For both the host and the guest. That the BJP's decision to invite Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Agitok Sangma to a training camp for its MPs at Jhijhouli, Haryana,on September 28 would raise some eyebrows was a foregone conclusion. Yet, neither the Speaker nor the BJP seemed particularly perturbed—Sangma delivered the concluding lecture at the camp as per schedule. But as the dust settles on the unusual episode, Sangma has emerged, to Congress and BJP leaders, as a man to be watched.

The Speaker's presence at the BJP camp has led to considerable apprehension in the Congress. Everyone seems curious about "Sangma's future plans". Said a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and a potential contender for the party president-ship: "Sangma is eyeing the top job and for that he wants to become more acceptable. Within the Congress he wants us (the anti-Sitaram Kesri faction) on his side."

 In the BJP camp, on the other hand, Sang-ma's acceptance of its invitation, as party spokesman K.L. Sharma put it, enhanced the party's status. Party president L.K. Advani reportedly remarked: "Mr Sangma will be performing a routine task. But in the prevailing atmosphere it is an indication of his greatness." The BJP is keen to get rid of its politically untouchable and communal tag and by inviting Sangma it hoped to gain acceptability with members of the secular camp. Interestingly, Sangma's caper at the BJP camp has come a time when the 13-party UF coalition is hanging on in power at the mercy of the Congress, only to keep the saffron brigade at bay. In this political climate, every move of the BJP, however innocuous, is viewed with suspicion.

But the question doing the rounds in political circles is: was the BJP trying to gain acceptability by inviting Sangma to address its MPs or was it Sangma, the politician, who is dropping hints about his future plans by developing a good rapport with the Lok Sabha's single largest party?

The Left, prompted by the presence of senior RSS functionary K.C. Sudarshan in the camp, was the first to criticise Sangma for addressing the BJP camp. The Congress put its point across mildly. "We don't want to create a controversy," said spokesperson V.N. Gadgil. CPI national secretary D. Raja sought an "explanation" from Sangma, pointing out that the Speaker should be above party politics and the BJP camp was meant for giving ideological training to rookie MPs. But in a telephonic conversation from Jaipur, Sudarshan told Outlook: "I had gone there to meet some people, not to deliver a lecture on ideological issues".

 On the face of it, the whole exercise in the BJP's view was "routine, innocuous and in the best spirit of parliamentary democracy". However, in his characteristic style, BJP leader A.B. Vajpayee declared at the camp that Sangma's presence would hit the headlines. And when this did happen, Sangma became incommunicado to the media. Initially, he had defended his decision to attend the BJP camp by saying that it was purely to train MPs in day-to-day parliamentary working—while addressing the joint special session of Parliament on August 26, Sangma had emphasised the need for training the MPs.

 "These issues will be pulled out at the right moment because he (Sangma) is eye-ing the post of prime minister in a post-United Front scenario. Naturally, he would like to build bridges with every political party," said a former minister, recently nominated to the CWC.

Sangma's own utterances have added to this dormant sense of hostility. In a lecture at the Oxford and Cambridge Society of India on August 22, Sangma said it was his "personal view that the prime minister must belong to the House of the people". This was seen by Prime Minister I.K. Gujral and Congress president Sitaram Kesri, who nurtures the dream of becoming PM—neither of them are members of the Lok Sabha —as an effort to undermine them. As if in reaction, Gujral flattened Sangma's plans of becoming the chairman of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), an international body. The ministry of external affairs did not help Sangma in his IPU campaign and he had to face a humiliating defeat.

According to some leaders, despite his rapport with all political parties, Sangma has been at times harsh on the UF regime—on the issue of UF ministers speaking in different voices on the law and order situation during President's rule in UP, San-gma had almost put the 13-party coalition on the mat by admitting BJP's motion against the government. In a harshly-worded ruling he virtually accused the government of "lack of joint responsibility".

It is in this background that a "definite political" motive is being seen in Sangma's flirtation with the BJP. But former Speaker Shivraj Patil counters this observation. Says he: "I don't know the details of the camp, but if he had gone there for training the MPs in parliamentary affairs then I don't see anything wrong in that."

Nobody doubts Sangma's intentions to fine-tune the functioning of the Lok Sabha. His role as Speaker became important as ASSOCHAM and other business groups urged him to bring about a balance in a hung Lok Sabha when finance minister P. Chidambaram apprehended difficulty in getting the Finance Bill passed last year. The popularity graph of the Garo tribal from Meghalaya rose many notches when he advocated a 400 per cent increase in the salaries of MPs. But the same Sangma had earlier rubbished the idea of keeping MPs and MLAs out of the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act in the aftermath of judicial activism.

"I am a tribal and a tribal's smile can never be deceptive," the media-savvy Sangma once told business editors. Sangma watchers feel, apart from his tribal and minority stature—he is a Roman catholic—steadfastness vis-a-vis the Rule Book seems to be his USP. From a junior minister of state a couple of years ago to a unanimously elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sangma has shot straight up the ranks. And if his latest political overtures are any indication, he could be even more upwardly mobile.