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Akali threat may force govt to eat humble pie

George Iype in New Delhi

Mauled by its allies, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government is making a desperate bid to wriggle out of the decision to carve out the three new states of Uttranchal, Vananchal and Chattisgarh.

Serious differences between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its major partners like the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Samata Party have nearly jeopardised the move to create the new states.

On Thursday, the Shiromani Akali Dal leadership threatened to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government if the BJP leadership goes ahead to include Udham Singh Nagar district of the Terai region in the proposed Uttranchal state.

''We cannot continue supporting the BJP government if it remains firm with the decision to make Udham Singh Nagar part of Uttranchal,'' Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal told Rediff On The NeT in a telephone conversation from Chandigarh.

The chief minister said he has personally met the prime minister and Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani a number of times in the past month to press for excluding Udham Singh Nagar from the proposed new state. ''But it is sad that the Vajpayee government is not ready to concede our demand,'' he said.

Badal convened the SAD's apex political affair committee on Thursday morning. A resolution from the meeting categorically stated that the SAD will be left with no option but to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government if its demand is not met in a stipulated time frame.

Terming his threat as ''an ultimatum to the BJP government'', Badal said the opposition to include Udham Singh Nagar into the proposed hill state is not from the Akali Dal alone. ''Merging the district with Uttranchal is like marrying two unwilling partners,'' the chief minister said adding that various political parties and social organisations in Punjab are with him on the issue.

Most political parties in Punjab argue that the yardstick of reorganising and creating new states on the basis of language, culture and social traditions does not apply in the case of Udham Singh Nagar district as its people have nothing in common with the hill people.

Already nearly 85 per cent of village panchayats of the district have submitted written memorandums to the prime minister and President K R Narayanan opposing the union of Udham Singh Nagar with Uttranchal.

While the SAD leadership has entrusted its Cabinet Minister at Centre Surjeet Singh Barnala to negotiate with Vajpayee and Advani to settle the controversial issue, many believe the BJP leadership will not go ahead with the merger plan for its own political reasons.

A section of senior BJP leaders have advised the prime minister and the home minister to give up merging Udham Singh Nagar with Uttranchal as it would ruin a stronghold of the party. They feel that any decision to merge the two will result in hostility to the BJP from the local populace.

While the BJP leadership is still ambivalent about Uttranchal, the Vajpayee government is also facing opposition from the Samata Party over carving out Vananchal from Bihar.

The SP argues that bifurcating Bihar would deplete the state's revenue after the creation of mineral-rich south Bihar as a separate state. Therefore, the SP leadership has demanded that north Bihar should be compensated.

Political observers believe -- following the SAD and SP pressure, which together have 20 MPs in the Lok Sabha -- the Vajpayee government will now go slow with its plans for the new states.

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