NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh Wednesday sacked his deputy Devi Lal from the council of ministers, holding him responsible for violating, “all cannons of collective responsibility.”
Premier Singh said the Deputy Prime Minister was responsible for forwarding a forged letter to him: leveling very serious allegations against cabinet colleagues and also making derogatory remarks against the premier himself.
The 76 year old rural based leader from Haryana was removed from the cabinet by President Ramaswamy Venkataraman on the recommendation of Prime Minister Singh.
A communiqué from the presidential palace said, “the president on the advice of the prime minister is pleased to order with immediate effect the removal of Mr. Devi Lal deputy prime minister and agriculture minister from the union council of ministers,
The prime minister acted swiftly soon after receiving Lal’s letter early Wednesday in which the deputy prime minister had clarified that he had no intention of maligning either the prime minister or his cabinet colleagues in his interview to the Bombay based “Illustrated Weekly.” or by any other act.
Singh conferred with his senior colleagues before advising the President to remove Lal from the council of ministers.
In a letter to Lal the Prime Minister said. Lal’s letter had not indicated as to the failed ever the letter alleged to have been written by Singh to the President on November 26, 1987, The letter turned out to be crude forgery involving the head of the government and the head of the state he said.
Jagdeep Dhankar deputy parliamentary affairs minister resigned from the union council of ministers late Wednesday in protest against the sacking of Lal Dhankar told PTI he found no justification for continuing in the council of ministers after the dismissal of Lal.
The dismissal of Devi Lal, one of the architects of the ruling Janata Dal and the responsible to a great measure for its Victory in the 1989 parliamentary elections, comes as a climax to a series of crisis sparked off by the role of his son as chief minister of Haryana and his subsequent re-induction last month into the same office despite a pending inquiry into the large scale violence in Meham constituency where Chautahala was a candidate in by elections that had to be countermanded twice.
The latest crisis was triggered by the deputy prime minister forwarding a forged letter allegedly written by VP Singh in 1987 addressed to the president implicating commerce minister Arun Nehru as a recipient of massive kickbacks in the 13 billion dollar gun deal signed with A B Bofors of Sweden during the previous Congress (I) regime.
Nehru was internal security minister in the erstwhile government and also happens to be a cousin of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
This was further complicated by Lal making accusations of financial misdemeanors against Nehru and civil aviation minister Arif Mohammed Khan and not even stopping at making disparaging remarks against Singh himself
Lal Krishan Advani, leader of the Bhartiya Janata, an important ally of the ruling coalition, said he did not think the government and the party were left with any option,
“I’ do not think they were lefts with any option after the letter Mr Dev Lal wrote an reply to the Prime minister,” he said.
The other ally of the Dal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said it was the Prime Minister’s Prerogative to remove a minister from the council of ministers.
CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee said “he has done it after considering the matter. I hope the government will be stable and will be able to do the duties that have to be done.”
Om Parkash Chautala late Wednesday said the consequences of the removal of his father would be “realised soon.”
He said the parliamentary party of the Janata Dal scheduled to meet on Friday would take final decision on the removal of Lal by Singh.
Talking to reporters at the residence of Devi Lal, Chautala said Lal was not aware of the Prime Minister’s decision to remove him from the cabinet.
“He went to sleep around 2230 hours and has not been informed of this decision,” he said. Chautala said Lal was the founder of the Janata Dal and would remain in the party.
Asked if the stability of the government would be disturbed, Chautala said that it is for the people of the country to decide.”
The major opposition party and the single largest party in parliament, the Congress I said the sacking of the deputy prime minister Devi Lal was indicative of the “fraud and deceit” being practiced by the Janata Dal.
In a reaction to the development, Congress I general Secretary Balram Jhakhar said the removal of Lal had “exposed” his game of fraud.
After the forged letter issue broke out many ministers at a special cabinet meeting on Sunday demanded strong action against Lal to put an end to what they considered acts amounting to damaging the credibility of the government and image of the party
The Supporting parties left if to” the prime minister to decide the’ course of action While Keeping in” mind the stability and image or the government.
Chief ministers of at least (hree Janata Dal ruled states Milayam Singh Yadav of Uwar Pradesh, Lallu Prasad Yadav of Bihar and Chimanbha Patel of Gujarat urged the prime minister to give one more chance to Devi Lal while they agreed that they did not approve of his (Devi Lal’s) actions.
Devi Lal while refusing to apologies for his remarks against Nehru however, replied to the prime minister’s letter on Tuesday seeking an explanation on the forged letter issue by saying his remarks in the interview to a Bombay weekly were in colloquial Hindi and were misquoted by the magazine. He added that he did not mean to hurt the prime minister.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 10, 1990
