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Centre tightening the noose on RJD regime

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has restrained Janata Dal-United leaders and senior cabinet colleagues Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar from demanding immediate imposition of President's rule in Bihar by saying that his government's strategy on the Rashtriya Janata Dal-ruled state would be ''foolproof."

Top government sources pointed out that both Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, whose vested interest in Bihar is obvious, have requested the prime minister not to delay President's rule in the state since the law and order situation there is equivalent to a "continuing jungleraj." Sources said Nitish Kumar had yesterday made an impassioned plea to Vajpayee in this regard citing the case of the dismissed state minister Rakesh Chaudhary alias Samrat Chaudhary as yet another example of the state government's misrule.

They said the JD-U chief Sharad Yadav also made a similar plea to the prime minister this morning, pointing to Tuesday's massacre of 12 persons including women and children in Palamau district.

"The prime minister told both Kumar and Yadav that he had already stated after the National Democratic Alliance retained power that his government would not be found wanting when it imposed President's rule on Bihar for the second time. The prime minister indicated that the omissions and commissions of the RJD government was being well-documented by the central government so that his ministers should have no cause for concern on the issue," the sources pointed out.

It is learnt that the central government has taken grave exception to the statement of the RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav that the acting Bihar governor Suraj Bhan was acting as the Centre's "stooge" and had allegedly falsely implicated Rakesh Chaudhary in the ''underage'' case.

JD-U spokesman Mohan Prakash confirmed that "leaders in the NDA want the Rabri Devi government dismissed on account of its misrule." He said not only Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar but all the leaders in the ruling coalition at the Centre want a new government in Patna. ''Why should anybody be surprised, we in the NDA have been underlining the RJD government's jungleraj for a long time; it is universal knowledge that we want to see the exit of the Rabri government," he said.

Interestingly, the controversy involving Rakesh Chaudhary has its genesis in the running feud between Nitish Kumar and Shakuni Chaudhary who quit the Samata to join the RJD. It is common knowledge that Shakuni's quid pro quo with Laloo for joining the RJD was that the former's son Rakesh should made a minister in the Rabri government.

While an immediate decision on President's rule may have been deferred BJP leaders too are convinced that the Bihar government's days are numbered. "Laloo's goose is cooked. His desperate actions reveal that he is stumbling from one blunder to another and as far as the Centre is concerned, it does not bode well for the Rabri Devi ministry," said a senior BJP leader. His party colleague, a vice-president, felt that ''Laloo ka paap ka ghara bhar chuka hai" (Laloo's cup of woes is overflowing) and the RJD chief had no one but himself to blame for it.

It is understood that the Centre has asked the Intelligence Bureau in Bihar to keep its eyes peeled and keep track of the misdeeds of the Rabri Devi government and forward it to the Union ministry of home affairs for appropriate action.

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