NEW DELHL, India, May 3, (Reuter): India’s youthful Prime Minister and its aging President, whose term expires in only 12 weeks’ time, look set for a confrontation next week over their constitutional powers, according to senior figures in the ruling Congress (I) Party.
President Zail Singh, 71 next Tuesday and widely believed to be seeking a second five year term, may try to dismiss Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, 42, but this would be answered by a move by Congress (1) Members of Parliament to impeach Singh, they said.
A Congress leader, who did not want to be named, said Gandhi was expected to seek an extension of the current Parliamentary sessions beyond its scheduled end on May 7.
This would permit Congress (I), which enjoys a massive majority in both Houses of Parliament, quickly to reinstate Gandhi if Singh ordered his dismissal, the leader said.
He said confrontation between the two had seemed inevitable since Singh wrote to Gandhi asking for a briefing on allegations that Sweden’s Bofors Company had paid kickbacks to Indians to secure a 1.3 billion dollar arms contract.
Singh’s action was viewed as another attempt to embarrass Gandhi and build up a case for his dismissal on charges of corruption or for violating provisions of the Indian constitution, the leader said.
Rajesh Pilot, Gandhi’ close associate and a Junior Minister, told Reuters: “Knowing him (Singh) personally, he is not of that nature. But if this unbelievable thing (dismissal of Gandhi) happens, it will be the murder of Democracy”.
Pilot said a party strategy was expected to be hammered out on the issue by tomorrow. “We can deal with the situation”, he added.
Singh’s letter on the Bofors scandal was the latest in a series of exchanges in the past 11 weeks a conflict which Indian newspapers have said is being used by the President as a weapon to negotiate a second term.
Gandhi, the well-groomed scion of an elite political family, is not expected to nominate the less polished President again because of Singh’s role in the Punjab crisis.
Gandhi and Singh, the country’s two highest officials, returned to New Delhi yesterday after separate tours of Indian States during which they referred to their dispute.
The President in a rare conversation with reporters on Thursday said, “There is no controversy from our side”.
In Bombay yesterday he added that as head of the State he could not allow his government and the democratic institutions of the country to be weakened. The President, by convention, does not give inter views or comment to reporters on major issues.
For his party Gandhi, speaking near Madras, told a May Day Rally, “This government will answer to the people of India and not to anyone else.”
Indian newspapers have said Singh might try to dismiss Gandhi on grounds of violating his constitutional duty to keep the President fully informed of all major issues.
The independent statesman said senior Congress (I) leaders had met Singh to ask him “not to think in terms of dismissing the Prime Minister, a power which he might think he derives from the constitution or even to dissolve Parliament and give the oath of office to another party member of Parliament.”
The strained relations between the President and the Prime Minister became public knowledge in March when the largest circulation Indian newspaper printed the leaked text of Singh’s first letter in which he accused Gandhi of misleading Parliament by saying he had kept the President informed of important matters.
“That (our correspondence) remains private, but we have stuck very clearly by what is required by the constitution. I had talks with the President. There are still some questions and we are sorting them out”, Gandhi said in an interview last week.
Congress (I) Party sources said Gandhi’s supporters would meet any bid to dismiss him with retaliation including possible impeachment of the President.
This would require the assent of two third majority of the members of both Houses of Parliament a margin Gandhi’s party could muster only with the support of its allies and the two main communist parties. : The Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India, Marxist said in a joint statement they were against any moves to dismiss Gandhi. :
“Anyone who asks the President to embark on this path is in effect advising him to organize a coup against the Republican Constitution”, they said.
Lawyer Salman Khurshid told Reuters that the President was bound by the constitution to act only on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet except in the appointment of a Prime Minister.
“Although in theory the President can dismiss a Prime Minister, it would be wrong to accept the blind proposition that he can dismiss a Prime Minister who has majority support in the House”, Khurshid said.
Indian newspapers have said Singh would take advantage of grey areas in the constitution to dismiss and call another Congress (1) leader to head the government. Alternatively he might send a message to Parliament detailing corruption or other charges against Gandhi.
Singh has in the past few weeks embarrassed Gandhi by demanding a briefing on each of a series of major corruption scandals which have erupted here. Among these is the controversial hiring of a USS. Detective agency to investigate Indian funds held abroad illegally and the Bofors deal.
“It is a war of nerves going on between the two of them and it will continue until the President retires”, the Congress (I) leader said.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 8, 1987
