President doesn’t sign on dotted line

The reversal by the Union Cabinet, announced by the official spokesman after a stormy meeting stretching over five hours and two sittings today, is bound to have serious ramifications for the six-month-old Gujral Government and trigger a major realignment of non-BJP forces.

Finding themselves cornered at the end of the day, leaders of Samajwadi Party — Mulayam Singh Yadav, Janeshwar Mishra and Beni Prasad Verma — walked out of the Cabinet meeting in a huff. Efforts to contact these three UP stalwarts proved futile, as they went into a huddle to decide their future course of action.

Sources in the SP say that their leaders felt betrayed by the UF partners — they singled out CPI leaders Indrajit Gupta and Chaturanan Mishra and National Conference representative Saifuddin Soz for their criticism — in their fight against the BJP. After today’s developments, observers do not rule out the possibility of the party joining hands with the Congress and even the BSP in UP to thwart the ambitions of the BJP.

For the record, SP leaders have scotched rumours that they had threatened to quit the UF if the Cabinet went back on its recommendation seeking President’s rule in UP. “We have no plans of leaving the UF,” said one of them.

To break the deadlock in the Cabinet, the UF leaders also came up with a compromise formula under which the Assembly could be placed in suspended animation after dismissing the Kalyan Singh government. They despatched ministers Jaipal Reddy, Ram Vilas Paswan and Srikant Jena with the proposal to Congress President Sitaram Kesri who shot down the idea.

The apparent reason to maintain status-quo in the state by allowing senior BJP leader Kalyan Singh to remain in saddle in India’s most populous state was the Presidential note, conveyed to Prime Minister I K Gujral at around 2.30 am on Wednesday, asking the Union Cabinet to reconsider its decision.

Shocked at this unprecedented development, members of the Cabinet, who were preparing to leave the Prime Minister’s official residence at 7, Race Course road after last night’s meeting, again went into a huddle.

But it was the pressure mounted by the non-SP regional parties and the Left which ultimately forced the Gujral Government to review its decision. “They were not just opposed to the misuse of Article 356,” remarked a senior UF leader after today’s meeting, “They wanted it to be completely removed from the Indian Constitution so that it is not used at all.” Representatives of these parties saw in the Presidential note an opportunity to redeem their position by seeking a review of the Government’s earlier decision which, they felt, was “unconstitutional and controversial.” They cited the Attorney General’s report to buttress their argument.

With their calculations threatening to go awry, senior UF leaders sought the advice of Jyoti Basu, P K Mahanta, N Chandrababu Naidu, who were away in Assam to address a rally, M Karunanidhi and G K Moopanar. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, JD chief Sharad Yadav and CPI (M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, who was scheduled to arrive in the Capital late tonight from Canada. “It was their advice, as also the strong case made out against President’s rule by the Attorney General and Union Law Secretary in the first round of today’s Cabinet meeting, which clinched the issue,” said a Minister.