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Confusion costs Congress dear in Parliament

The first round went to the government in the hue and cry raised in Parliament over the inclusion of Rajiv Gandhi's name -- albeit in the inoperative column II -- in the Bofors chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation last week. The Congress' uncertain strategy was what led to the ruling coalition seizing the initiative.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley took advantage of the Congress confusion to succinctly state why Rajiv Gandhi's mention was in no way connected to seeking of any political mileage.

"I want to assure the House that the law will take its own course against all the accused mentioned in the chargesheet," Jaitley said even as Congress members caused a pandemonium in the lower House. They were demanding that instead of Jaitley, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee should reply to the matter.

Union Home Minister L K Advani pointed out that since the Opposition members had raised the matter during question hour, the prime minister had instructed Jaitley to reply. Advani said Vajpayee could have replied if the matter was held under a special discussion. But the Congress members maintained a protracted din which continued for over an hour after which the Congress members staged a walkout followed by their All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam counterparts.

The information and broadcasting minister, whose locus standi to reply to questions regarding the Bofors chargesheet was repeatedly questioned by senior Congress members especially former Union home minister Buta Singh, looked unflappable. Jaitley displayed a rare tenacity to carry on with his reply despite the deafening noise in the House.

At this juncture, the Congress members led by Buta Singh and Priyaranjan Dasmunshi started proceeding to the well of the House but the deputy party leader in the Lok Sabha, Madhavrao Scindia, hastily summoned his party colleagues back. Confusion was writ large on the Congress members' faces and they milled around the benches in utter uncertainty. Scindia then left his seat to walkout of the House followed by his party colleagues and the AIADMK members.

As order was restored in the House, Jaitley pointed out that the issue of mentioning a dead man's name in the second column of the chargesheet was not decided " by the government of the day but the officers of the agency investigating into the case." He pointed out that the name of Dhanu, an accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, had died while committing the heinous act, but her name was mentioned in the second column of the chargesheet . Earlier, the name of Beant Singh, who was shot dead after he killed Indira Gandhi, was also included in the second column of the relevant chargesheet, the minister said.

Jaitley made a strong plea for non-interference by the government, either at the Centre or in the states, in the framing of the chargesheet, which, he underscored, was the responsibility of the investigating agency.

Scindia clearly was uninspiring in the handling of the situation. Had he not prevented his party colleagues from rushing to the well of the House, he could have escaped responsibility for the adjournment of the House which speaker G M C Balayogi would have resorted to in all likelihood.

Soon after the walkout, Congress Lok Sabha members met outside the Central Hall of Parliament to discuss the "disaster." Party MPs Mani Shankar Aiyar and Girija Vyas could be seen talking to party spokesman Ajit Jogi that "the conspiracy angle" in the Bofors should have been highlighted by the Congress deputy leader in the house. These Congressmen were clearly at a loss regarding the party's next move on the matter. One senior Congress Lok Sabha member contended that Scindia had much to explain to the party chief as a similar opportunity was hard to come by.

In the Rajya Sabha, party spokesman Kapil Sibal vociferously repeated the allegations made against the Vajpayee government: its alleged attempt to extract political mileage and seek political vendetta by including Rajiv's name in the second column of the Bofors chargesheet.

Compounding the Congress woes is the appointment of Scindia as the party deputy leader in the lower House. While the party was ostensibly eager to endorse Scindia's appointment by Sonia, the fact is that there is much heartburn among senior leaders over it. According to a party MP from Rajasthan, "Scindiaji has not given a good account of himself in his new role so far. As a result he has put himself under the microscope."

Even as Congress MPs discuss the "missed opportunity " in the Lok Sabha today, related developments in the House were equally discouraging to them. Samjwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today removed all doubts about his party's distance from the Congress when he contended that his party was in favour of an impartial inquiry into the Bofors case because the main question was " corruption in high places." Mulayam's statement elicited cheers from the BJP benches.

Similarly, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party has already indicated that its moves in Parliament would be independent and designed to accrue the maximum political benefit for itself. Pawar recently said that his party was willing to join hands with the Congress in Parliament only in Sonia's absence. This underscores that his ''political allergy'' for the Congress chief is still strong. This is bad news for the Congress.

Whether the Congress will be able to politically outwit the Vajpayee government in the coming weeks will be determined to a large extent by the strategy it adopts.

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