CHANDIGARH: For the first time in their eight-month-old battle against the Haryana chief minister, Bhajan Lal’s style of functioning, the dissidents got a shot in the arm when many of the loyalists, including ministers and legislators expressed resentment at the concentration of power in the chief minister’s secretariat at a PCC meeting recently.
PCC president, Dharam Pal Singh Malik, was taken aback. He was left with no alternative but to assure the complaints that he would convey their sentiments to the chief minister.
More alarming for the chief minister and his well-wishers is the widespread welcome this note of dissent has received from the Congress rank and life in Haryana,
At the same meeting, the participants expressed total confidence in the leadership of the chief minister and urged the central leaders to immediately check the activities of the dissidents who had tarnished the party’s image by criticizing their own government at the rallies organized by them. But the loyalists made it clear to the PCC chief that they could not face the people during the “pragati yatra” as they would have no answers to their queries concerning transfers, postings, recruitments, developments concerning the resumption of the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal and territorial disputes between Haryana and Punjab.
A senior minister, who was not present at the PCC meeting, said that the outbursts. was “an expression of hurt ego and pent-up feelings” against the predominance of some bureaucrats who wielded more power than even senior ministers,
Congress close to the chief minister, however, gave another dimension to the row, They felt that the PCC show was a preemptive move to dissuade the chief minister from reconstituting his ministry as Bhajan Lal had already dropped hints that the axe would fall on those ministers who had failed to deliver the goods.
But senior party leaders said that the PCC outburst was of chief minister’s own making as he knew of the simmering discontent among his ministerial colleagues over the “bureaucratic wall” he had built around himself. Instead of taking it as a passing phase, these party men pointed out, the chief minister must make amends to foil his detractors’ plans to exploit the situation.
Today, in the 35-member ministry, most of the members hardly have anything worthwhile to look after. Consequently, once the glamor of chauffeur-driven cars and bungalows is over, most junior ministers are feeling frustrated sitting idle.
These leaders say the chief minister should do a bit of plain speaking to convince party legislators that it is not only beyond his powers to make each of them a minister, a big ministry is also a drain on the state exchequer which is already hard-pressed for funds.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 2, 1992
