NEW DELHI: Fresh rumblings of dissent surfaced in the Congress with yet another signature campaign and a veiled attack on the party leadership, close on the heels of the shock over the forces exit of Sharad Pawar. Congress MPs from Madhya Pradesh at a breakfast meeting with the Prime Minister on March 5, charged the Central Government with failing both on the administration and political front. The meeting intended to focus on the problems of the state turned into an unrestrained criticism of the Center, particularly the role of some of Rao’s troubleshooters, according to sources.

Hours after the meeting, yet another Signature campaign was unleashed which, while appearing, had the germs of dissent embedded within. MPCC chief, Digvijay Singh leading the campaign had circulated the memorandum calling upon the President, Dr,Shankar Dayal Sharma to consider taking over the Krishnabhoomi in the same manner as the Ayodhya Ordinance and secondly to order a comprehensive probe into the activities of the RSS since Independence.

The decision to send the memorandum to the President was an unmistakable signal to party men about loss of faith in the government’s abilities. Besides, the MPCC chief if considered a Close confidence of Arjun Singh. The proponents of the move said that more signatures would be collected soon.

The breakfast meeting with the Prime Minister saw several sparks flying with Shivendra Bahadur Singh accusing V.C.Shukla a recent member of the Prime Minister’s firefighting squad of undue interference in state affairs and bungling political matters. Shukla was present. The senior leader, Arjun Singh, arrived 10 minutes late and left midway without much ado, There was an interesting sideshow, however with Rao showing signs of magnanimity in asking Gufraz Azam to vacate the seat next to him for Arjun Singh. In view of the recent decision to demote Singh in the seating order in the Lok Sabha, Rao’s concern for his senior colleague was remarkable, an Arjun Singh supporter later remarked.

Margaret Alva, another of the Prime Minister’s troubleshooters spoke to Suresh Pachchouri at the erd of the 75minute meetings to find out the reason for the unrestrained criticism of the leadership, while the MPs did not aim at the party leader; they appeared to have been adequately briefed by some of his staunch opponents. The decision to grant Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi, Minister in the PMO, an office inside Rao ‘sRace Course residence is likely to cause more  heartburning with some party men rejoicing over Jitendra Prasada’s discomfiture

Across the Congress disgruntled party men appeared to be making: common cause with the aim of mounting a major offensive in the AIGCC session, three weeks away. Among those actively involved in the dissident campaign are M.L.Fotedar, Shiv Shankar, K.N.Singh, Ajit Jogi, Chinta Mohan, Jagmeet Singh Brar, Shiv Charan Mathur and Aslam Sher Khan, ;

The recent disclosures about the involvement of the Prime Minister’s son in the scam as revealed by this newspaper have added more ammunition to the disgruntled party men the Arjun Singh supporters.

Article extracted from this publication >>  March 12, 1993