WHEN Home Minister S.B. Chavan stepped into the portals of Rash-trapati Bhavan on March 19 to meet the President, he did so with a certain trepidation. Even though the ordinances seeking reservations for Dalit Christians and reducing the campaign period had been despatched 48 hours ago for the President's assent, the signals received in the meantime were not positive.
Even before Chavan could finish impressing upon the President that the Government was unable to legislate due "to reasons beyond its control", the President wondered about the "legal and constitutional propriety of promulgating the ordinances so close to the general elections.'' According to sources in Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President "neither withheld assent to the ordinances nor sent them back to the Government", but merely communicated his views to the home minister.
Only a day before, Opposition leaders had petitioned the President to rethink on the ordinances. Atal Behari Vajpayee stressed on the "misuse of ordinance-making powers" of the Government, while on the question of cutting short the time period for campaigning, he felt that the "curtailment of elections should have come as a larger poll package." A delegation of National Front-Left Front leaders had also opposed the ordinances as being unfair. Says Ram Bilas Paswan: "If it works out, it helps the Congress.If it does not, then they take the credit for trying." But the President's refusal to clear the ordinances has frustrated the Congress gameplan to project the Opposition as anti-Harijan.
The ordinances, however, were only the catalyst. In the past few months, the President is said to have been unhappy over the manner in which the Prime Minister has been trying to assert himself.
A week ago, Sharma had written to Rao over the Government's failure to appoint a new Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) in place of C.G. Somiah, who had retired. (A panel of names is normally sent to the President for his assent. The present government had only submitted a single name for the President's clearance.)
He was also unhappy about the election dates, which were clashing with his foreign trip, scheduled for the first week of May. Sharma's Europe trip had been called off in August 1995.
Sources say the President's animus began in early 1994, when he had strongly objected to the appointment of S.V. Giri as the Central Vigilance Commissioner. He had signed on the appointment letter only after the Prime Minister personally pushed the case.
The President is also upset over what he thinks is the Government's 'selective' approach on the hawala issue, which is largely centred around his home state, Madhya Pradesh. Rao has been trying to mend fences though. He reportedly offered a ticket to the President's son, A.D. Sharma. But the President declined politely.
Even though Rao was entitled to put pressure on Sharma to promulgate the ordinance, what may have held him back is the need to keep the President on the right side in the likely event of a hung Parliament as Rao considers himself a front-runner for a second term.
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