NEW DELHI: Vishwananth Pratap Singh sat in his home here and described the disenchantment that led him to break with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, whom he served as Finance and Defense Minister and hopes to unseat in national elections two weeks away.
Mr, Singh, a soft spoken man who would have been the Rajah of a tiny principality if such titles had not been abolished, is seen as a potential choice for Prime Minister if the opposition wins a majority.
In the interview on Sunday, the 58yearold coalition leader insisted that an opposition victory is likely in the voting from Nov. 22 to Nov. 26. He said he particularly looked forward to involving dis advantaged citizens in fashioning solutions to India’s domestic problems.
The cure for a democracy’s problems, Mr. Singh said, “is more democracy.” He complained that a paternalistic attitude prevailed in the Government, “a relationship of a giver and a taker.” Stalwart of Ruling Party Born into the old ruling family of Manda in northern India, Mr. Singh was once a star in the Congress Party, which is headed by Mr. Gandhi and has ruled for all but two years of India’s history since independence.
Mr. Singh has served as the chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous and politically influential state, and as Minister of Commerce under Indira Gandhi. After Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, he gained power in the cabinet of her son, Rajiv. As finance Minister, Mr. Singh was widely credited with the liberalization of India’s economy.
Nothing that economic growth is flagging as the election app roaches, Mr. Singh cautioned in the interview against a trend of increasing interest payments on India’s foreign debt.
Such payments are now app roaching 30 percent of the country’s expenditures. The prices of basic commodities have been rising, and India’s hard currency reserves have fallen to the equivalent of 45 days’ worth of imports.
Mr. Singh has a longstanding reputation for independence that some would say borders on impetuousness. In 1982, he surprised his backers and critics by resigning as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. His explanation was he had failed to meet a deadline he had set for the capture of a notorious bandit.
His break with Mr. Gandhi came in 1987, when as Defense Minister he’ resisted pressure to abandon an inquiry into possible Kickbacks in the awarding of an Overseas defense contract. Ousted from his post, Mr. Singh formed his own small party and in 1988 convincingly defeated a Gandhi nominee in a district in which Mr, Gandhi, his mother, and his grand. father, Jawaharial Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, had family ties.
The opposition leader exuded confidence in the interview, saying that Mr Gandhi stood “no chance” of being returned to power despite the Congress Party’s dominance.
Mr. Singh asserted that a new government would correct what he described as “mismanagement” of India’s foreign policy.
Improved relations with China, including an expansion of trade, would be a top priority, he said. India’s neighbors, particularly Sri Lanka and Nepal, could also expect rapid improvement in ties, he added.
Mr. Singh, who heads the Janata Dal Party and a larger coalition of opposition groups known as the National Front, would have been expected to voice optimism ‘on the eve of the closing of nominations for the 545seat lower house of Parliament.
But he is not alone in emphasizing the apparent weaknesses of Mr. Gandhi’s position, Diplomats who believed six months ago that Mr. Gandhi would be returned to power easily, if narrowly, are now hedging.
The most optimistic assessment of the Congress Party’s chances is that it might win 300 seats in the lower house, from which the Prime Minister is chosen. In December 1984, the ruling party brought Mr. Gandhi to power by winning 415 votes in the wave of sympathy following his mother’s assassination.
The editor of a major national newspaper usually sympathetic to the Gandhi Government said last week that the Prime Minister “would be lucky to get 100 seats.” He suggested that if voter support diminished further, a panicky Congress Party might be tempted to remove Mr. Gandhi as leader. A coalition government is possible.
The opposition still operates ‘with a considerable disadvantage, however. It’s loose and often uneasy alliance of parties, from Communists on the left to Hindu conservatives on the right, faces a century old Congress organization
Congress has been the party of virtually all of modern India’s heroes, from Mohandas K. Gandhi to Nehru to Indira Gandhi, all of whose faces have reappeared in campaign posters this year. It is a nationwide party, with immense resources and a vast patronage system that touches many of India’s 498 million voters. Opposition Short on Resources as the governing party, Congress also controls state-run television and radio, which have been used over the last six months as little more than propaganda outlets.
Asked what weapons he would use to counter these advantages, Mr. Singh replied, “We have the weapon that over history has been proven again and again: people’s power.”
The National Front, short on resources, has been making the most of the scandals building up around Mr. Gandhi’s Government, As the campaign progresses, leading Indian newspapers say, they will publish more details on the alleged payment of kickbacks to Indian officials by the Swedish company Bofors in return for a $1.4 billion weapons contract.
Last week, the Ganhi Cabinet faced an unexpected crisis when a well-known environmentalist, 26yearold Mukti Datta, chared that Mr. Gandhi’s Environment Minister, Z. R. Ansari, 64, had sexually assaulted her when she went to ask for his assistance.
The Congress Party has not come to Mr. Ansari’s defense, although he has denied the charge. He now says that he may be the victim of a campaign to discredit him from within the ranks of the Cabinet itself.
Around the country, rifts are appearing in the Congress Party’s state and local organizations as the intense struggle for parliamentary seats draws to a close. In contrast, there has been less public infighting than expected in the states controlled by the opposition, where regionally based parties are acknowledged to have effective local leaders.
In at least 300 constituencies, the often fractious opposition has managed to agree on a single candidate to face the Congress Party. This is important as Congress has historically won pluralities but not majorities in many areas, capturing seats only because opposition strength was fragmented.
Also potentially significant is the awarding of the chakri, or wheel, to the Janata Dal Party as its election symbol.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 10, 1989
