NEW DELHI: Former Union Agriculture Minister Rao Birendra Singh resigned from the primary membership of the Congress I and the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian Parliament, on July 31.

The senior Congress | stalwart who is also a former Chief Minister of Haryana state, resigned to protest against mishandling of many issues including the criticism of, and the scandal caused by, the report of Comptroller and Auditor General on the purchase of Bofors: guns.

Rao Birendra Singh handed over the copies of his resignation to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Lok Sabha secretary general Subash Kyshap in the house during the question hour.

He spoke briefly to Gandhi and left the house leaving ruling party members guessing about what he was up to.

After receiving the resignation letter, Gandhi called Home Minister Buta Singh who was sitting on the next bench and showed him the letter.

The Home Mnister was seen rushing after Rao Birindra Singh who was leaving the house. Political observers feel that the ruling party has suffered a great setback with this resignation. He is the first Congress I M.P. to quit the party in the wake of the mass designation by opposition members of parliament.

Political circles regard this exit from the Congress, which he joined in 1978 at the behest of Mrs Indira Gandhi, as a devastating blow to the ruling party. More so because Rao Birendra Singh was among the 10 MPs who had written to Rajiy Gandhi after the party nominee had suffered a defeat in the Allahabad by-elections. Some of the other MPs were Chamanbhai Mehta (suspended) Ram Mangal Panday (he left the party), Abdul Ghafoor, Nawal Kishore Sharma, Sripat Mishra, Prabhawati Gupta, Kamakya Narain Singh and Harpal Singh.

While opposition circles are jubilant over this development they are also expecting more dissident Congress MPs to leave the party before the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections are held. Congress sources say that if those who do not expect to get tickets want to leave the party, it is their outlook.

“There must be some local Haryana problem,” was V.N. Gadgril’s comment to newsmen today when the AICC general secretary was asked for his response to Singh’s resignation.

Other Congress leaders who are not happy with Rajiv Gandhi’s and Congress are likely to follow suit.

Birinder Singh later told new men that he felt chocked in the party for some time as it had become ineffective.

“I wanted to be free and work according to my conscience,” he said. He said he was thinking of resigning from the party and the Lok Sabha for quite some time, “I finally made up my mind on Monday morning,” he added.

Rao Birendra Singh, in his four page letter, cited the failure of the government on various including the Punjab and Sri Lanka accords and the failure to implement the ‘Mandal commission report on backward classes.

The handling of the CAG report by the government had “made the matter worse” as the controversy over defense deals had been raging for two years, agitating the public mind over alleged involvement of middlemen and payment of commissions for the Bofors gun deal.

On the CAG report, he said, “It is not realized that if we publicly question the credibility and bona fide of the CAG. our own credibility will be weighed and judged against his credibility.

He was also pained over the government’s apathy to the aspirations of the backward classes. No action had been take to implement the Mandal Commission report despite repeated appeals and agitations in various parts of the country.

Rao Birendra Singh recalled that these issues were raised in a letter written to the Prime Minister by 10 Congress MP last year.

The former Union minister addressed his letter of resignation from the party to the congress president Rajiv Gandhi and that of his regulation from the Lok Sabha and the speaker, Balram Jakhar. He was elected to the Lok Sabha on the Congress ticket from the Mahindragarh constituency to Haryana.

In the seventies Rao Birendra Singh had set up a new regional party called the Vihal Haryana Party. He mereed this with the Congress in 1978 when Indira Gandhi was in the opposition during the Janata rule, In all likelihood, he may contest the Lok Sabha poll as an Independent candidate backed by various opposition parties,

In related news, two more opposition members resigned from the parliament on July 31 bringing the total to 97.”

Those who resigned were Dr. Datta Samant, the trade union leader of Bombay, who was and independent member, and S.M. Guratti the Janata Dal member from Bijapur in Karantaka.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 4, 1989