National

Prime Orchestrations

Morale is low in the CWC as Rao ignores senior party leaders and woos the state units instead

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Prime Orchestrations
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What Prime Minister Nara-simha Rao had hoped to achieve by opening a veritable Pandora's box with the hawala controversy remainsas intriguing as the man himself. But what it has resulted in is that the demons released in the process have cast a long shadow on the ruling Congress party's electoral prospects. "Go to the party's national headquarters on 24, Akbar Road. You just do not see too many visitors, not even ticket-seekers. This has never happened before, not even when Indira Gandhi was out of power," said a central party office bearer, adding, "people, in general, and our own people in particular have started believing that the party as a whole is corrupt."

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In fact, this growing sense of pessimism appears to have infected even seniorCongress leaders, who seem hesitant to come out in open defence of the Prime Minister's role in the scam. Possibly in retaliation, last week Rao went on the offensive against party leaders and the Congress Working Committee (CWC). They were totally ignored as Rao, almost single-hand-edly, decided on the party's candidates for the Rajya Sabha in 15 states, and later called a meeting of about 150 second-rung leaders from the states to endorse his position in the hawala controversy in the face of the CWC's reluctance to do so.

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In the second phase of his gameplan, Rao plans to involve about 450 district Congress committee (DCC) presidents. The obvious message that he hopes to send out to party leaders and the CWC is: fall in line or face the consequences. Before he gets into the final act, Rao wants the state and DCC leaders to back him in the hawala case. Therefore, he began the first lap of theexercise on February 15, by addressing party workers at Karimnagar, in his home state of Andhra Pradesh. And till he gets a favourable response in the other states as well, he is likely to avoid calling a CWC meeting. "We are not in a hurry. It is for the party president to set the date for the meeting," said V.N. Gadgil, party spokesman and a Rao loyalist.

At the moment, Rao's political propaganda—both his offence and defence—revolves around the hawala case since at least seven out of 18 CWC members hold him as guilty or innocent as the rest who figure in the scam. Obviously, it is crucial to have a solid party backing him if he is to fight the case effectively in Parliament and before the electorate. Therefore, with elections only a couple of months away, the only credible option left before Rao now is to interact more with the DCCs and PCCs.

But on February 16, former Union minis-ter Balram Jakhar and Industries Minister K. Karunakaran—both CWC members—enlisted the support of half-a-dozen other members to call for a CWC meeting at the earliest to discuss the current political situation. Besides being belated votaries for Congress unity, which essentially means getting the N.D. Tiwari-Arjun Singh faction back into the party, Karunakaran and Jakhar are also in favour of the CWC debating the "systematic use of the CBI against politicians" by the Rao Government.

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"If Rao can say publicly that his government will not come in the way of the CBI probe, we have every right to say in the party's apex body that he has applied multi-standards in such cases and that he too owes an explanation, on his own behalf as well as that of his family, for other corruption cases," said a Congress MP who had to resign as a Union minister following the hawala chargesheet.

Many complain that Rao's 'loner approach'—of not taking leaders into confidence regarding the party's stand on the hawala episode as well as on other similar issues—has left the party flounder-ing. "We have not received any brief from the CPP as to what stand we should take on these issues in Parliament when it meets for the budget session on February 26 where the Opposition, cutting across party lines, is sure to attack Rao on the Purulia arms dropping case, St Kitts and, of course, the hawala case and the allegedly partisan role of the CBI," said a Congress Lok Sabha member from Kerala. "Besides, there has been no attempt on Rao's part to take the party into confidence and tell them that he is not guilty in the hawala case. Supposing the party throws its weight behind him, and the Supreme Court tomorrow finds substantial ground to probe Rao's role in the St Kitts or hawala scandal, we will sink," said a Union minister. And the fear is, after all, not unfounded.

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But Rao's immediate concern is to tide over the Parliament session. The Opposition parties are clearly not ready to buy his public pronouncement that "the Government would not come in the way of the CBI hawala probe and that he (Rao) did not know anything and would wait till the matter came up before the Supreme Court". Opposition leaders also refused togive a categorical assurance to Lok Sabha Speaker, Shivraj Patil, for a "smooth session", the last in the life of the 10th Lok Sabha. "We are keen for the vote-on-account being passed to avoid a constitutional crisis. But Rao needs to do a lot of explaining on hawala and Purulia," said Srikant Jena, JD leader in the Lok Sabha.

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However, once the vote-on-account is adopted, Rao's accountability to Parliament as well as to his party will be over. He will be free to completely bypass the CWC and select candidates with the help of the states' party machinery. So, naturally, Rao is keen to have the vote-on-account taken up first. But the hostile attitude of the Opposition parties during the meeting with the speaker has thrown up the possibility of other issues being taken up first, which will only serve to weaken Rao's case. In fact, the Opposition is now insisting that the vote-on-account be taken up last. But Rao knows that, despite the prevalent antagonism, his partymen will not go to the extent of dragging down the Government. In the present scenario, this should provide some solace to him.

Therefore, deferring the working committee meeting till the Parliament session is over is another ploy to render the CWC redundant. During the selection of the Rajya Sabha candidates, no one except for Sharad Pawar—also a member of the working committee—expressed any reservation over the manner of selection of candidates.

However, there are major issues at stake in the Lok Sabha elections. And that is why the CWC members—Jakhar, Karunakaran, Jitendra Prasad, Ahmed Patel and Rajesh Pilot—are demanding a CWC meeting before the Parliament session as, otherwise, they will have no role to play in the distribution of tickets. Among the elected members of the CWC, only R.K. Dhawan—because he knows as much as S.K. Jain about Rao's role in the scam—and A.K. Antony are with Rao in the current conflict.

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A direct fall-out of the hawala case, thefactional fight seems to be inching towards a decisive phase. As for those opposed to Rao, it is a matter of now or never for he is known to have a long memory and is not particularly forgiving, going by the CBI chargesheets against handpicked politicians. The first crippling blow could come from the denial of tickets.

Nevertheless, the current tug of war has the potential of reviving the old but not forgotten debate—whether the leadership owes its position to the party or vice versa. Rao's success or undoing will go a long way in proving either of the theories right.

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