NEW DELHI: Anguished by the escalating communal violence in the country and the deteriorating economic situation, the President, Mr R. Venkataraman, is understood to have counseled senior leaders of political parties, who have called on him in recent days, to avoid immediate elections to the Lok Sabha and to examine the possibility of forming a national government.

Expressing his distress over the communal flare up in several states in the aftermath of the aborted kar seva programme at Ayodhya on October 30, the President reportedly told some of his callers that the situation in the country was far too serious to even contemplate elections at this juncture. The antiMandal agitation and the casteist divide that had come in its wake and the severe economic crunch faced by the country following the Gulf crisis had only added up to the woes of the country. The President is therefore understood to have said that it was imperative for political parties to end the current political deadlock and think in terms of providing a stable government at the Centre. Some of those who have had the benefit of the Presidents advice have returned with the feeling that Mr Venkataraman is in favour of forming a small and compact national government that can tackle the situation prevailing in the country initiate immediate measures to deal with the economic crisis and generally provide a sound stable government for the next year or two. They credit the President with the view that elections should not be held for at least another year. Apart from the disturbing law and order situation, the President is also worried, they say, about the prospects of having yet another hung parliament if elections are held in the near future.

All this, however, does not preclude the possibility of the President calling upon Mr Rajiv Gandhi, leader of the Congress (I), which is the largest single party in the Lok Sabha, to form a government in the event of the Prime Minister’s resignation either on or before November 7. This is so because the idea of a national government cannot take off unless leaders of the major parties agree.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 9, 1990