ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Mulayam, Gujral ask President to reject cabinet decision on Bihar

Opposition parties today urged President K R Narayanan not to approve the Union Cabinet's ''mala fide and unconstitutional'' recommendation for imposing central rule in Bihar.

The Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha delegation, led by its president Mulayam Singh Yadav, called on Narayanan at Rashtrapati Bhavan this morning and demanded the recall of state Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari and rejection of the Cabinet's recommendation.

Talking to newspersons after a 45-minute meeting with the President, Yadav said he had impressed upon the President not to go by the Cabinet decision since there were serious differences among the allies of the ruling coalition on this sensitive issue.

Yadav also told Narayanan that the Centre's recommendation to dismiss the Rabri Devi government, hours after she had secured the vote of confidence, smacked of political vendetta and that the governor's report was used as a tool to implement a political decision.

The RLM delegation, including about 30 members of Parliament besides former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, Morcha convener Ranjan Prasad Yadav and spokesperson Amar Singh, handed over to the President a three-page memorandum on why he should not go by the Union Cabinet's decision.

Laloo Yadav said he also handed over a letter from Chief Minister Rabri Devi to Narayanan explaining in detail the law and order situation in Bihar. She had requested the President to take into account the situation in several BJP ruled-states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Delhi, before taking a final decision.

A Janata Dal delegation, led by former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral, also called on Narayanan and urged him not to approve the Cabinet's decision. Dal leader S Jaipal Reddy said the delegation told the President that the invocation of Article 356 on the ground of bad governance was absolutely unwarranted.

Reddy said if the law and order situation was the reason, then central rule should be first imposed in Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

Describing the Bihar governor's role in the whole episode as "extraordinary", Reddy said the way he camped in Delhi for a week to accomplish his task has no parallel in the history of free India. The governor's political background is too well known, he added.

The Dal delegation included Gujral, Surendra Mohan, Jaipal Reddy and S R Bommai. Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and former railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who are in the capital, did not join the delegation. Indications are that Paswan might call on the President separately in the afternoon.

Reddy said he had also told the President that the way the BJP's coalition partners were demanding imposition of President's rule in various states, two-thirds of the country will soon have to be governed from New Delhi. The President should not allow such a thing to happen, he said.

Asked about the differences in the Janata Dal on the Bihar issue, Reddy said: ''We four are from the Janata Dal as anybody else''.

Surendra Mohan congratulated Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde for his bold stand on the imposition of President's rule in Bihar. Hegde had described the BJP government's decision as a "monumental blunder".

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report