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Centre won't consider judicial option on Bihar, says Jethmalani

Union Urban Development Minister Ram Jethmalani today said he did not envisage the possibility of the Union government going in for judicial opinion if its motion for imposing President's rule in Bihar was defeated in the Rajya Sabha.

Replying to a question at a press conference in Madras, Jethmalani, himself a well-known lawyer, said: "It is true that we have many options now. The best method, of course, will be to persuade the Rajya Sabha to vote in favour of the government motion during the debate.

Asked about the reported speeches made by several Union ministers, including Railway Minister Nitish Kumar, favouring judicial opinion, he said the Union cabinet had not discussed it.

Jethmalani predicted that there would be pressure on the Congress to support the government motion in the Rajya Sabha. The Bihar Congress unit had revolted against the party leadership's moves to prop up the Rabri Devi regime, he said.

Admitting that imposition of President's rule in Bihar without having a majority in the Rajya Sabha was a gamble, he said the other option was to do nothing. This way, the people of Bihar and the country would realise what the Congress was up to.

The minister criticised the TNCC for deciding to burn copies of the Union budget in protest against the change in the name of the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana to Gram Smriti Yojana.

The new scheme envisages direct funding of gram panchayats for building houses thereby avoiding middlemen and corruption. The deletion of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's name was done only to avoid associating his name with a corrupt scheme, he said.

Jethmalani was particularly vitriolic about West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu's alleged statement that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was "communal, uncivilised and barbaric".

Departing from his prepared speech, a visibly emotional Jethmalani said Vajpayee had distinguished himself as an excellent poet.

"I wouldn't leave my profession for a lesser person and become a minister," he said, asking, "Can anyone call Vajpayee uncivilised or communal?"

Jethmalani criticised the communist state as a cruel joke and a hangover from the past but said he however admired the communist dream of empowering the poor.

"The dream is still valid; it will be foolish to abandon the dream," he said.

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