AMRITSAR: The dissident Congress MP from Faridkot, Jagmeet Singh Brar, has said that the hypocritical advisers of the Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, should be removed to rejuvenate the Congress party.
Addressing media persons here ‘on Dec.10, he said the party debacle in Kamataka and Andhra Pradesh elections had demonstrated that the Congress high command had failed to read the ground realities and it was all because of the coterie around the prime minister and the Congress president who did not allow the party “loyalists” and the state leaders to make their point of view heard. He also said that the elections had proved that the people had rejected the much talked about new economic policy of the Central Government which he claimed, had only helped a handful of big industrial houses and the multinational corporations.
While maintaining that the accountability for the parties defeat was collective rather than individual, Brar called for serious introspection, within the party to. Gear it for the February 1995elections in six states.
Accusing the prime minister of giving weight only to one sides viewpoints and curbing the voice of dissent in the name of party discipline at the behest of his advisers, he said in doing so he was turning his back on the ground realities.
He gave the example of a letter purportedly signed by 70 Congress MPs from the south urging the prime minister to review his (Brar’s) expulsion from the active membership of the party, which went unheeded. He said the party high command also remained a silent spectator when a senior member of the party working committee and its Parliamentary Board, Arjun Singh, was humiliated by the henchmen of the Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh, in Ludhiana. He cautioned that the attempt by a central minister, who had always been disloyal to the party, to rake up the Bofors issue in the Lok Sabha at this juncture, apparently to embarrass and humiliate Sonia Gandhi, would further weaken the party, Brar said that the Punjab card had failed to click in the elections because by now people throughout the country had come to know of the unconstitutional actions and misdeeds of the Beant Singh Government. Reacting to the dropping of two ministers from the Beant Singh Cabinet in the recent reshuffle, he said it smacked of discrimination and factional politics. He said unfortunately no action was taken. Against the corrupt ministers who had in fact been given important portfolios. He said he was sending invitations to both factions of the Bharati Kisan Union, the Akali Dals and the Communist parties to participate in the conference to be held at Mudki in Faridkot district on Dec.18 in connection with the ‘Iok yudh morcha® launched by him to fight for the rights and demands of Punjab. Meanwhile in Ludhiana, the defeat of the ruling Congress in the recent elections is not a verdict against the policies of the party and the prime minister.
‘This was observed by the former Union Home Minister, Buta Singh, while taking to media persons here. Rather, he said, it was a rejection of the respective chief ministers by the voters.
“What can a poor PM do if the?
CMS don’t follow him,” he said He felt that secular forces would face a setback with the defeat of the Congress and regional parties would get strengthened. Asked if he did not consider the Janata Dal a national party, he said it was so only in bits and pieces.
Meanwhile in Patiala, the total rout of the Congress in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka clearly in dictates the steep decline in leadership provided by P.V. Narasimha Rao all these years: Such a rout in his home state; where he was the ‘star campaigner’ was not expected at all. Bi Devinder Singh, former Whip of the Congress Legislature Party, in a press release here on Satire day, said that wherever a party president had dual charge, he would not be able to do justice to cither of the two offices.
‘The defeat in these two Southern states was a sad reflection on the, wisdom of the working of the Congress president and the people: had rejected him. It was his weak leadership that allowed the system: in the party and the administration of state governments to decay to such an extent that the people were left with no alternative except to reject it out rightly, he said.
Bir Devinder said that since five more states are slated for Asser. by polls and a tentative program has also been announced, it was high time the Congress leadership at the top took cognizance of the latest trends in electoral politics, Keeping in mind the larger inter sets of the nation and the Congress; the situation warranted ‘sacrifice’ from a leader of the congress.
Further, it would be highly desire able and most appropriate if members of the Congress Working Committee did some honest retrospection, leaving aside their group loyalties, and provided
charismatic’ leadership at the helm of affairs to save the Congress and the nation from disaster, He said that there was a fear lurking in the minds of Congressmen all over India that if the Congress was doomed in other states also, the secular fabric of the Indian body politic may be buried for quite some time and this trend could prove disastrous for the integration of the country.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 16, 1994
