NEW DELHI: The battle between the supporters and detractors of the Prime Minister, P.V.Narasimha Rao, intensified on Feb.1 when both the factions came Out in the open trading charges 4gainst each other.
While the Rao baiters are bent Upon embarrassing Rao by seeking his removal as Congress(1) President and thereby expressing lack of faith in his leadership, the Rao supporters have adopted a firefighting operation to salvage the leader image and project him almost as a synonym for the party 4S well as the nation Joining the growing list of dissenters was Ramchandra Rath, former Union minister and senior Orissa leader, who confirmed an earlier report in The Economic Times stating that a Signature campaign was on for demanding an early AICC(I) session as well as for enforcing the One man One post dictum.
“The prime minister must show magnanimity and as the head of the family should give up the post Of party president in keeping with the principle of one-man-one-post,” Rath said on Monday.
Saying that the prime minister was able to devote adequate time to party work because of administrative responsibilities, Rath added: “What we need is a full time party president to face the challenges posed by communal forces led by the BJP.”
Interestingly, Rath recalled the party’s Tirupati plenum where Rao had himself stated that circumstances has made him accept the post of party president and that it was a temporary arrangement. “Rao should now bow to the wishes of a majority of Congressmen and give up the post, he added. It may be mentioned that these demands also have the support of other senior leaders like K.N.Singh, M.L.Fotedar, Tariq Anwar, A.R.Antualy, Buta Singh and Arjun Singh.
On the other hand seven party MPs joined hands in a bid to bolster the prime minister’s image by the debunking the dissenters. “The Criticism of Congress policies by some of its own members is a tragic example of individual vested interests taking precedence over the national interests as well as the interest of the party,” they said in & a signed statement.
The signatories, who include Sajjan Kumar, Surinder Singh, Gurcharan Singh Dedhor, Balbir Singh, Jagir Singh Dard, Gurcharan Singh Ghalib and Kewal Singh, were clearly having a dig at K.N.Singh and A.R.Antulay, when they started:” “It is ironic that these postures of pontificating are being adopted only after they failed to reconcile of their non-inclusion in the ministry.
These MPs even criticized Arjun Singh when they categorically stated that “the challenge of divisive forces cannot be met merely by enacting legislation.”
The Rao supporters appreciated the prime minister’s policy of consensus saying that only such a policy would keep the nation together, Interestingly, they issued some Sort of threat to the dissenters when they stated that” the party workers will not tolerate such utterances, The dissenters are creating confusion in the garb of ideology.”
Article extracted from this publication >> February 5, 1993
