NEW DELHI: The President is faced with hard options, even as the rail of the BJP government appears imminent. During the last couple of days Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma is learnt to have taken a new initiative to explore the possibility of a national government to avoid dead lock in the 11th, Lok Sabha. He is believed to have sounded: ‘out several leaders including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao who called on him last week, about the feasibility Govt of national talent.
If Dr. Sharma’s comments to some of those who have called on him in recent days in any indication, the President is full of disquiet about the stability of a 100odd! Member government made up of 13 parties which are backed from the outside by 200 members (of the Congress and the Left). It might have been different had the Congress decided to join the coalition government. But that is not the case.
While, he is not very happy about the viability of a United Front government, given past experience of Charan Singh and (Chandra Shekhar whose ministries did not last more than a few months, the President also realizes that if he does not give Deve ‘Gowda a chance, he might be open to the charge of partisanship. Already there are murmurs in the Third Front about a Brahminical conspiracy to keep the no upper castes out of power. (Dr. Sharma, ‘Vajpayee and Narasimha Rao are all Brahmins) Such a message could polarize the ‘country on caste lines and consolidate the forces of social justice who have numbers on their side. The unpleasant controversy created by the TF leaders when Dr. Sharma invited Vajpayee to form government is too recent to be forgotten.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 29, 1996
