NEW DELHI: In a last-minute bid to avert a split in the opposition Janata Dal Party, senior party leaders Biju Patnaik and George Fernandes Friday opposed any disciplinary action against dissident leader Ajit Singh, and called for all-out efforts to resolve differences.
Talking to newsmen separately, they said discipline could not be enforced in any political party, especially the one like JD.
“There is no question of any disciplinary action against him, Group politics is there in all parties, “said Patnaik “No party can run on disciplinary action. My effort is to see that there is no split”, Fernandes said.
Their statement assumes significance in the context of the split in the Uttar Pradesh Janata Dal, the recent outbursts of Ajit Singh against the party leadership and the demand for action against “indiscipline”,
While both said indiscipline could not be condoned, Patnaik felt that discipline should be observed by common consent and could not be imposed.
Fernandes said Janata Dal was still an ad Hoc organization and imposing discipline meant the constitution (of the party) must be in operation. Punitive action would only mean that it would be a disciplinary action towards disintegration, he added.
Asked about the president internal squabbles in the party, Patnaik said “I am hot interested in their gymnastics. People are fed up with their histrionics and something must be done to end this”.
He did not think that the Uttar Pradesh developments would have spilled over to Delhi and said he would be talking to senior party leaders when they meet .
The Orissa chief minister said he was always for patching up differences an added that nothing would happen to the party due to the current round of crisis. These things happen in democratic parties.
Patnaik said “nothing will happen to the party in a hurry. Ultimately common sense will prevail. I am always in favor of rapprochement.
Dismissing the current crisis in the party as of no consequence, Patnaik said “I have no time for their frivolities. I will talk to the warriors when they come back from their battlefield.
Asked if V P Singh had spoken to him, he said in a lighted nein, “Yes, when he spoke to me I asked him and his wife to come to Orissa for a holiday after what he had done in Amethi. I told him come and lick you wounds during the holiday”.
He said “when two planes fight it is called dog-fight. And when these fellows fight what is it called”.
Asked if the in-fighting would affect the party unit in Orissa, he said “no. There are no Singhs to fight in Orissa. There is no a-Singh, no B-Singh”.
Patnaik said party president, S R Bommai, had met him Friday and added he still did yacht CSL
not know what was the cause for the crisis: in the party as he was concentrating mostly on Orissa matters.
Making it clear that he was not for indiscipline in the party, Fernandes said it was for the leaders to reconcile to the fact that by mutual adjustment the party could go on, “my effort is to see that there is no such (disciplinary) action”, he added.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 13, 1991
