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Bihar JD leaders break ranks, support Centre's move

The differences in the Janata Dal on the fate of the Bihar government became public today when former railway minister and leader of the Dal's parliamentary party Ram Vilas Paswan objected to the stand taken by some senior party politicians opposing the Union Cabinet's recommendation to dismiss Chief Minister Rabri Devi.

Paswan said he would not take "seriously" the views expressed by a delegation of senior politicians led by former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral which met President K R Narayanan in the morning to protest against the move, saying they did not know the "reality" in Bihar where scores of party workers have been killed and hundreds put behind bars.

Maintaining that the Bihar unit was fully with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition's decision to dismiss the state government and keep the assembly in suspended animation, Paswan said the Janata Dal had been demanding the dismissal of Rabri Devi's government for the past year. Only last month, he and party president Sharad Yadav had pleaded with the President to dismiss the government. "We stand by our decision and support the dismissal," he said.

Paswan said the invocation of Article 356 in Bihar was no more a mere matter of principle, it was about protecting the lives and properties of the people of the state. These very leaders, including the Left parties, who are now opposing the use of Article 356 were active proponents of its invocation in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh when the United Front was in power , he said.

In Patna, the Bihar unit of the Dal demanded the expulsion of Gujral, S Jaipal Reddy, S R Bommai, and Surendra Mohan for opposing Rabri Devi's dismissal.

State Dal president Ramjivan Singh and Legislature party leader Ganesh Prasad Yadav urged the party's central leadership to convene a meeting of the national executive committee and initiate disciplinary action against the four leaders.

They said the foursome had committed an act of gross indiscipline amounting to anti-party activity by opposing the Centre's move to dismiss Rabri Devi's government.

They pointed out that Gujral, who was now advocating democratic norms, was a member of Indira Gandhi's cabinet during the Emergency.

UNI

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