NEW DELHI: With “disquieting” signals emanating from 10, Janpath, the political managers of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao took a new initiative to assess the mood of the MPs and assuage them. Sonia Gandhi’s scarcely veiled disapproval of some of Rao’s recent actions has put even the so-called Young Turks in the party in a dilemma, One of the younger ministers who was part of the initiative to help out the Prime Minister from the present crisis, admitted his inability to side with the Prime Minister against the widow of the late Rajiv Gandhi. “Sonia Gandhi’s decision not to back Rao has lent an altogether new dimension,” said the minister on the condition of anonymity. Correctly reckoning the gravity of the new element that had been added by Mrs.Gandhi’s snub to the Prime Minister, the Rao camp began to gear up for the challenge. The Commerce Minister, Pranab Mukherjee held a significant meeting with the Environment Minister, Kamal Nath, known for his proximity to 10, Janpath. The Rao group’s anxiety to mend fences with the Sonia camp was further demonstrated by efforts to bring round some of her vocal spokesmen, The Commerce Minister called over the Rajya Sabha member, S.S. Ahluwalia, a staunch Sonia loyalist, to his Udyog Bhavan office apparently to preempt the possibility of any further tirade from this loudmouthed backbencher against the Government vis-à-vis 10, Janpath. At the recent meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party executive, Ahluwalia openly charged the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, V.C. Shukla, with harassing the family of the late Prime Minister.
The game plan of the Prime Minister’s lieutenants was to remove ‘misgivings’ of at least the vocal MPs before the scheduled CPP meeting. Some of the younger MPs had already given notice for a frank discussion at this meeting asking for an opportunity to speak, In a letter to the Congress president, two MPs Aslam Sher Khan and Dilip Singh Bhunia almost Set the agenda for the meeting by Suggesting that it be an effort to _ redefine Our strategies involving all MPs, especially from these segments (backwards and minorities).”
The strategy of the Rao camp appears to be to tum the heat further on the ministers under cloud.
‘There were hints in the Congress circles that the petroleum minister, Satish Sharma, might bracketed with scam tainted ministers like Kaplanath Rai, B Shankaranand and Rameshw: Thakur in an apparent plastic to win Mrs. Gandhi’s neutrality.’
Article extracted from this publication >> December 23, 1994
