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Nitish joins hands with Sharad, Paswan to negate Fernandes

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Apprehensive of Defence Minister George Fernandes's attempts to secure a ministerial berth for Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Bannerjee, three of his Cabinet colleagues, including his Samata party mate Nitish Kumar, have joined hands in a bid to curtail the defence minister's clout on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The other ministers are Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan.

Vajpayee, despite widespread resistance from the opposition and even his own Bharatiya Janata Party members, had re-inducted Fernandes as defence minister, even when the Venkataswami Commission had not reached a conclusion on the alleged complicity of Fernandes in the Tehelka scandal.

Soon after re-assuming charge as the defence minister, Fernandes had tried to influence Vajpayee into taking back the Trinamul chief.

Mamata, who had left the ruling National Democratic Alliance, is seeking to make a comeback as minister after she rejoined it.

However, since Mamata had insisted that she be given the railway portfolio, which is with Kumar, the latter is obviously rattled.

He has not lost time in throwing in his lot with Yadav and Paswan whose wings had already been clipped by the prime minister who changed their high-profile civil aviation and communication portfolios respectively.

"The three of them share a feeling of self-preservation ever since Fernandes has come back in the government. They have formed a trinity in a bid to stave off Fernandes' perceived machinations against them," confided a BJP Union minister of state belonging to Bihar, who did not want to be identified.

While Kumar is cheesed off with Fernandes for ganging up with Mamata at his expense, the railway minister is also aware that the defence minister largely owes his political hold to him in the Nalanda parliamentary constituency.

As an undisputed leader of the Kurmis, Kumar has helped Fernandes consolidate his votebank in Nalanda, which is regarded as a Kurmi backyard where even the irrepressible Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav has not been able to make a mark.

Kumar's grouse is that despite all this, the defence minister has let his political ambitions soar at his expense and he is ready to get even with the latter.

This is why Kumar, during the monsoon session of Parliament, told the Lok Sabha that the government would not re-induct Fernandes as the defence minister until the Venkataswami Commission completed its probe into the Tehelka scam.

Kumar's assertion stunned Fernandes and ever since the two have been at loggerheads, trying to outwit each other.

However, the railway minister's reluctance to help his senior party colleagues -- Raghunath Jha and Prabhunath Singh -- become central ministers earned him their hostility.

"Fernandes sahib is our leader, we will back him to the hilt," said Jha to rediff.com.

"He is a fair man unlike some among us," he added.

The latter part of Jha's assertion was an unambiguous dig at Kumar. It also pointed out that they were backing the defence minister in his face-off with the railway minister.

"We all know that there is a conspiracy even among the treasury benches to keep Fernandes sahib out of the government," pointed out Prabhunath Singh.

He added that while he would not identify the people in question at this juncture, 'they will be exposing themselves soon by their misdeeds'.

Kumar, Yadav and Paswan are now feeling that if they combine together, they will be less vulnerable to political machinations against them from within the government.

Consequently, they have met and discussed how best they can stave off attempts to cut them down to size.

One suggestion mooted is the unification of the erstwhile constituents of the Janata Dal of which three NDA ministers were a part.

"Yes, we feel that the unification of our leaders (under a common banner) is something which cannot be discounted," pointed out Mohan Prakash, spokesman of the Janata Dal (United) of Sharad Yadav.

Complete coverage of the defence scandal

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