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Congress decides to turn on the heat

George Iype in New Delhi

Even as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee completes one year in office next week, the Opposition parties led by the Congress are raking up unsavoury issues to show that the coalition government is weak and ineffective.

Close on the heels of the Bihar fiasco, mounting pressure from the combined Opposition forced the government to agree for a parliamentary debate into the sacking of Naval Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat and the corruption charges levelled by Mohan Guruswamy, former advisor to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha.

It will be the second time -- after the Bofors controversy -- that serious allegations of a nexus between arms dealers and services personnel raised by a navy chief would be the subject of a parliamentary debate.

The government has also been caught on the wrong foot as it has been compelled to discuss the allegations of financial bungling and charges of underhand dealings raised by the suspended BJP member Guruswamy.

Government managers feel that the Congress's newfound aggression in raking up these issues is just a deft strategy to erode the image of the one-year old coalition.

Sensing that the Congress stance on issues like Bihar, Admiral Bhagwat and Mohan Guruswamy are an indication of the coming threat to the government, Prime Minister Vajpayee has convened a meeting of the party's members of Parliament on Friday.

In the light of the Congress's assault on the government, Vajpayee is expected to call upon the BJP rank and file to get ready for any challenge to the coalition regime in the coming days.

The prime minister is also expected to meet the coalition leaders over the weekend to warn them of "the Congress activity" and get reassurances from the allies that they would continue their commitment to supporting the government.

To tackle the increasing Congress offensive against the government, the BJP leadership has prepared an 11-page digest of Yashwant Sinha's annual budget for circulation among party cadres and local units when the ongoing budget session of Parliament goes on recess.

"The Congress party is getting restive and trying to take up unnecessary issues like the sacking of Admiral Bhagwat because we have presented a budget that has been applauded by all people," BJP vice president K L Sharma told Rediff On The Net.

He disclosed that the Congress's Lok Sabha leader Sharad Pawar had assured the prime minister that the Opposition would not rake up the Bhagwat issue in Parliament as it concerns sensitive national security matters.

"The prime minister also showed intelligence documents to Pawar and other opposition leaders and told them that it would not be in the national interest to have any discussion on the sacked navy chief," Sharma said.

The BJP leader said the Congress and other opposition parties agreed to the prime minister's submission, but switched their stance "for political reasons."

Sharma stated that during the month-long Parliament recess, the BJP and its alliance partners would expose the double standards adopted by the Congress and other opposition parties.

But Congress leaders say having succeeded in embarrassing the government on Bihar, party president Sonia Gandhi wants to exploit controversial government decisions in an attempt to garner political mileage.

In fact, like as on the Bihar issue, a section of Congress leaders and MPs had urged Sonia not to rake up the Admiral Bhagwat issue as it concerns national security. Though initially the Congress president was personally against a censure motion on Admiral Bhagwat in Parliament, a section of party leaders advised her that it was the best issue to take on the government over.

According to Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha P J Kurien, the party leadership decided to nail the Vajpayee government on the Bhagwat issue because "the government is forcing the defence forces to indulge in a slanging match."

"After having sacked a service chief, the government has the responsibility to take Parliament into confidence in such a sensitive matter," he told Rediff On The Net.

Kurien said Defence Minister George Fernandes has "demoralised the armed forces in the country". "Therefore, the Congress wants a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the corruption charges levelled by Admiral Bhagwat," he added.

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