National

An Albatross Called Laloo

The Congress buys time for Laloo, but at a grievous cost to itself

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An Albatross Called Laloo
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CONCILIATION isn't a term associated with Rashtriya Janata Dal (rjd) chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, but that was at the fore when he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week. When she reproved him for the atrocities against Dalits in Bihar, he promised meekly to stand like a rock between the extremist groups and their victims. Laloo knew all too well that Sonia's support on President's rule in Bihar was reluctant, proffered in the teeth of strong opposition inside the party.

For the Congress, supporting Laloo's stand against President's rule in Bihar was a difficult-and expensive-decision. It had compromised its position on Dalits and on corruption, goading its Bihar unit into virtual revolt. Leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar candidly admitted in Parliament that the party would lose ground in Bihar as a result. The underlying fear was obvious: another massacre after Rabri Devi's reinstatement as chief minister and the Congress would lose face not only in the state, but throughout the nation.

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The party went out of its way to stress that it held no brief for Laloo, with aicc general secretary Sushil Kumar Shinde attacking him for ignoring Dalit welfare. Pawar emphasised that Congress support was based on the expectation that Rabri Devi would protect the Dalits. With uncharacteristic mildness, Laloo accepted the criticism as well as Congress demands for a cbi probe into the massacres and implementation of land reform and minimum wages.

But the Congress effort at damage control didn't cut much ice with the Dalit leadership in the House, the Bahujan Samaj Party and Janata Dal (JD) leader Ram Vilas Paswan. By backing Laloo, says Paswan, 'the Congress forgot the Dalits and remembered only the minorities . He feels that the party could have been a nucleus for anti-Laloo forces disenchanted with the BJP. The JD leader had been hammering out an alliance between the Congress, the Janata Dal and a splinter group of the Samata Party headed by MP Shakuni Choudhary. A senior Congress leader said some Samata Party MPs had expressed interest in joining the Congress. Now Paswan's efforts have vanished into the blue.

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At the Congress Working Committee (cwc) meeting called to finalise the party's stand on the presidential ordinance, Pawar favoured supporting the imposition of President's rule, as did general secretaries Shinde and Madhavrao Scindia. Party sources say that Sonia, who had made her sentiments clear with the statement 'Rabri Devi has no moral authority to rule in the wake of the Jehanabad massacre, was not inclined to back Laloo.

But former party president Sitaram Kesri and cwc members Tariq Anwar and Jitendra Prasada carried the day, aided by the southern lobby. The minorities, they said, were coming back to the Congress. If the party was seen to stand with the BJP on any issue, they might think again. The argument forced even Arjun Singh to swallow his animosity to Kesri and give in. The pro-Laloo group argued that the Dalit vote, unlike the minorities, was not homogeneous; what happened in Bihar would not affect Dalit votebanks across the nation. It was the Muslim vote which had to be safeguarded.

Not all partymen buy that. Uttar Pradesh pcc president Salman Khursheed said: 'Events in Bihar will have no bearing on UP. The minority vote wouldn't have been affected either way. Curiously, the Congress will be hard pressed to reconcile its support to Laloo with its opposition to the Samajwadi Party in UP. The two Yadav leaders-Mulayam Singh and Laloo Prasad-jointly head the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha (rlm) and the former has often accused the Congress of an unholy alliance with the BJP. Khursheed made it clear that there was no change in the party's stand vis-a-vis Mulayam Singh Yadav: 'He's called us enemy number one. Just last week, Mulayam's brother, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal, attacked the Congress president in a statement that echoed the Sangh parivar: 'The western powers want to install Sonia Gandhi as prime minister. She is their person.

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While the Congress insists that it wants no truck with the rlm, SP MP Mohan Singh observes: 'The Congress cannot hope for a political share in UP or Bihar without the rlm. Congress leaders say that party support to Laloo is a one-off; it will continue to stick by the Panchmarhi declaration and go it alone in UP and Bihar, steering clear of 'casteist parties (read rjd and Samajwadi Party). 'I have not forgotten that in the 1998 general election, Laloo called Congress candidates vote-katua (vote-losers), says Shinde. Another leader rued: 'We have again strengthened the third force at our own cost.

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For better or for worse, the Congress is viewed as having aligned itself with Laloo-even if in a temporary marriage of convenience. In a state that's sharply polarised along pro-Laloo and anti-Laloo lines, the Congress has exiled itself to no man's land.

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