MANDATE: WILL OF THE PEOPLE by VIR SANGHVI

Author:VIR SANGHVI [SANGHVI, VIR]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Mobilism
Publisher: Westland
Published: 2015-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Mandal & Mandir

In 1977, the Janata Party had been offered a historic opportunity to give India its first non-Congress government and had messed it up. It had taken Indira Gandhi and the Congress less than three years to climb back into office. Now, as the results of the 1989 election came streaming in, it was clear that more than a decade later, the people of India were offering non-Congress forces another chance.

But this time, the verdict was not as decisive as it had been in 1977. For a start, the Congress was still the largest party in the Lok Sabha with 197 seats. No other party had anything like a majority. And worse still, even if two large parties aligned, they still could not form a government.

Faced with this nearly impossible situation, the opposition struck a strange but necessary compromise. The Janata Dal would form the next government. The BJP would support it from the outside and so would the Left. Could the Left and BJP really agree on anything? Probably not. But at least for now they agreed that the election results had been a call for a non-Congress government.

The new government began its tenure with a lie and a confidence trick. Chandrashekhar, who had been President of the Janata Party since 1977 expected to be prime minister. But V P Singh had become the face of opposition to Rajiv Gandhi. So perhaps the sub-text of the verdict had been a call for him to become prime minister. One way of settling the issue would have been to hold a free election. But just as the Janata Party had refused to allow a leadership election in 1977, so was the mood of the party against internal democracy. Instead it was decided that the party would play a trick on Chandrashekhar. He would be told that Devi Lal, the farmers’ leader from Haryana would be the new prime minister and would even be asked to propose Devi Lal’s candidacy. But Devi Lal had been briefed. The moment he got the job, he was to get up and say that he wanted V P Singh to be prime minister. V P Singh would accept the responsibility and Chandrashekhar would be left looking like an idiot.

Kuldip Nayar who was very close to Janata Dal leaders, remembers the day. ‘I told Devi Lal that there was an incident in the Mahabharat when an elephant died. And the elephant had the same name—Ashwathama —as a warrior. And they managed to create confusion around that name,’ remembers Nayar. ‘So I told Devi Lal, it does matter whether you became prime minister for one minute or ten years. Sometimes it is good to tell a half-truth. You have been made prime minister, but you chose to give the post to V P Singh.’

Years later, I asked Chandrashekhar about the incident. He said categorically, ‘V P Singh’s election as Prime Minister was, by any standards, illegal. Because if one person is elected, then it’s not a crown that he can hand over to somebody else.

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