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The Rediff Column/V C Bhaskaran

Everything now depends on President K R Narayanan's sagacity

The ring master has lost his touch. And the circus, in all probability, will wind up soon.

With the political turmoil generated by the Jain Commission's interim findings, the menagerie that is the United Front, kept under constant surveillance by the discredited Congress, finds itself unable to go on. For a very simple reason.

That it has no will of its own.

A menagerie is after all a menagerie. When Congress president Sitaram Kesri wanted former prime minister H D Deve Gowda ousted, the motive was simply personal. There was no great principle involved. The UF showed some kind of solidarity till the heat became unbearable. After which, expectedly, they dumped poor Deve Gowda.

Now, history seems to be repeating itself. The same Congress wants an important UF constituent to be booted. The demand has gathered strength after the party dragged its feet initially. This is because the UF has lost its power to think in terms of the whole country, but has been led by petty people with petty interests.

The Jain Commission has categorically stated the LTTE had a free run in Tamil Nadu even after Chandra Shekhar dismissed the DMK government. According to the report, the key conspirator of Rajiv's murder, Sivarasan, had staged 'dry runs' of the assassination before the D-day. He was able to establish an intelligence network in Madras and made several trips to Jaffna from there.

The total apathy shown by former prime ministers V P Singh and Chandra Shekhar to the high security risk which Rajiv faced has been noted by the Commission. The mysterious disappearance of files and papers during P V Narasimha Rao's regime also finds mention in the report. And there lies the crux of the matter.

If a full-fledged discussion takes place in Parliament on all aspects of the murder, the Congress and the Janata Dal will find the situation too hot to bear. There are too many skeletons in their cupboard which, if allowed to tumble, will spell doom for both the parties. Which is why Kesri sought to play down the report leak when it found its way into the national media. And when party functionaries gave vent to their ire, he had to devise ways to contain the brewing revulsion and a possible revolt.

Added to this was the spectre of the BJP luring away sizeable sections of Congress MPs to form a government of its own at the Centre. And that is why the Congress MPs were told to create a furore in Parliament, asking for the immediate removal of DMK ministers from the government.

Kesri's calculation seems to be that instead of restive party MPs finding ministerial berths at the Centre on the BJP back, why not nudge his way into the government like the proverbial Arab and the camel? So, while initially the Congress was not inimical to the DMK continuing in the UF, the latest move is to add the DMK to the list of political untouchables, a position now exclusively a BJP property.

Even West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu appears to be favouring a government sans the DMK. His Kerala counterpart E K Nayanar, however, has expressed his strong opposition to any such proposal. Both Nayanar and Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel are for a fresh election rather than any kind of power-sharing with the Congress. However, the Congress is not willing to 'plunge' the country into fresh elections -- unless it absolutely has to.

The TMC, DMK's electoral ally, changed its colour fast enough. P Chidambaram's observation against the Union industry ministry handled by Murasoli Maran was also part of the scheme to isolate the DMK. At any rate, the DMK's affinity to the LTTE and their common refrain of a separate Tamil homeland away from the Indian Union cannot be denied.

A revival of that spirit can be discerned in Karunanidhi's charge that by demanding the DMK ministers's ouster, an effort was being made to persecute the Tamil people. There is the danger of an ethnic strife in this charge which has to be nipped in the bud. The DMK is not Tamil Nadu, nor does it represent the Tamil aspirations. But a political leadership, myopic and self seeking, cannot stem the rot.

Kesri and his aides will stop at nothing. Only fresh elections will throw up a leadership that views India as a whole. Everything now depends on President K R Narayanan's sagacity.

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