Debate Brings Out Uf Rift Over Up Situation

Divisions in the treasury benches became apparent in the Lok Sabha yesterday when Left members suggested that Prime Minister Deve Gowda should make a statement in the House, clarifying whether home minister Indrajit Gupta or Uttar Pradesh Governor Romesh Bhandari represented the governments view on the situation in Centre-ruled Uttar Pradesh.

Guptas own party MPs sided with the BJP against their own Front colleagues and expressed willingness for a full fledged debate on the issue.

Later, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan told journalists that his partys executive committee took strong exception to to the unusual step taken by the Governor and chief secretary of UP, publicly contradicting the stand of the home minister.

In Lok Sabha, while the Congress and the non-Left constituents of the ruling United Front spoke against any debate in the House over the sensitive issue of performance of a Governor, the BJP reaped benefits by succeeding to lead the House to a situation where the government appeared attempting a cover-up.

In a short intervention, Srikant Jena said perceptions might differ in the government and that the Governor also had a right to present his perception to the government. But that did not mean there was a difference between the Governor and the home minister.

Perhaps taking a lead from the Left demand for the Prime Minister to make a statement in the House, Congresss Das Munshi said Guptas statement was already the property of the House and if the Prime Minister now chose to defend Governor Bhandari then the home minister would have to resign, and if Gowda defended the home minister then the Governor would have to resign.

The issue was raised by BJPs deputy leader Jaswant Singh during the Zero Hour when he pressed for submission of his notice under Rule 184 to discuss whether the Governor had exceeded his brief by contradicting the views of home minister Indrajit Gupta and if yes, why he should not be recalled.

Speaker Purno A Sangma reserved a ruling on the notice for today.

Indrajit Gupta had stunned the House last week by saying that the situation in UP was bordering anarchy, chaos and distruction. Governor Romesh Bhandari countered Gupta the very next day by saying the home ministers statement was not based on facts. Bhandari said he had reported the UP situation to the Prime Minister and that Gowda was fully satisfied. Not only that, Bhandari then led his chief secretary to write a letter to Centre and simultaneously released the same to the Press.

Parliamentary affairs minister Srikant Jena and defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav UFs projected Chief Minister for UP - looked worried, constantly consulting each-other and Congress members. Bhandari is said to be a choice of Mulayam Singh and Congress and was appointed by Prime Minster against the wishes of the home minister.

Neither the Prime Minister nor the home minister was present during the debate.

A strong section in the ruling Front was not in favour of Governors conduct being discussed in the House. But Members from BJP, Samata Party, Shiv Sena and Muslim League spoke strongly for a debate.

Samata leader Nitish Kumar argued that it must be settled in the House whether the Governor and the home minister could differ in their views on the situation in a state under central rule, and if yes, whose views should prevail.

Making a plea for the Prime Minsiter to make a statement, Nirmal Chatterjee of CPI-M questioned whether different views in the cabinet were entitled to be expressed and whether or not the Centre and the Governor had a right to differ on assessment of the situation of the state.

He said this had happened in the past on Article 356 of the Constitution.

The CPI executive has requested the home minister to visit UP soon and to acquaint himself with the ground realities after meeting all officials as well as leaders of all political parties, and to give necessary directives for not only improving law and order situation, but also making the administration more responsive to the people.