The United Front (UF) government plunged into another crisis when a lone Janata Dal (JD) MP from Jammu and Kashmir, Mohammed Maqbool Dar, threatened to resign from the Lok Sabha and to form a regional party in protest against his exclusion in the first expansion of the Gowda ministry, Another senior JD leader from Bihar, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, is reportedly reluctant to join the Gowda ministry despite his appointment as Minister of State.
The crisis comes less than 24 hours after PM Deve Gowda managed to tide over a series of crises over the expansion of the Cabinet. Earlier the PM was successful in persuading the new Minister of State R. L, Jalappa to withdraw his resignation. He also had to ward off a confrontation over the continuance in the Home ministry of controversial minister of state Mohammed Taslimuddin. The ministry now has CPI veteran Indrajit Gupta as Cabinet minister.
Janata Dal working president Sharad Yadav has urged the PM to solve the crisis. PM Gowda is reportedly of the view that since Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu had hinted at another expansion to provide more representation to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and other underrepresented UF constituents, Mohammed Dar’s inclusion could be synchronized with the second expansion.
Meanwhile, immediately after taking charge, home minister Gupta has made it clear that Taslimuddin’s reported comments on the Ayodhya dispute did not represent the government’s point of view, a memorandum demanding the removal of Taslimuddin from .the Cabinet has reportedly been sent lo PM Gowda and Indrajit Gupta by the Delhi Commission of Women.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 3, 1996
