Gujral On The Offensive To Silence Critics

While the nation wonders Prime Minister I K Gujral ko gussa kyon ata hai his close associates indicate it is a well thought out strategy of the gentleman to speak to the largely rustic crowd in Parliament in the language they seem to understand.

The Prime Minister has been losing temper in the Lok Sabha almost every day ever since he was rudely forced to abandon a statement on the recent earthquake in the Madhya Pradesh last week in the Lok Sabha by Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar, who shouted that there was no point in listening to a Prime Minister who had acknowleged himself as helpless.

In fact, the new mood of the Prime Minister is so noticeable that it has become a talking point in the corridors of power with journalists wondering whether he was suffering from high blood pressure.

Though the sheer pressure of work and the growing contradictions within the United Front, whose government he is heading, are enough to drive anyone to the edge of his nerves, in Gujrals case it is a realisation that his gentlemanly behaviour is being taken as passivity and weakness.

Let alone the Opposition, even colleagues in the United Front have been complaining against the Prime Ministers soft, and therefore weak, image, especially when it came to keeping the focus on communalism was concerned. They felt former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda with his rustic agressiveness was far more successful in keeping the BJP always on the defensive.

Gujrals aides say the Prime Minsiters new mood reflects his strategy according to which he must give it back in the same coin to those who took him for granted.

The Prime Minister is also expected to sharpen his attack against communal forces and stress on secularism in order to check the growing offensive of the BJP against him in Parliament.

An indication of this came on Monday when the Prime Minister accused Leader of Opposition and former BJP Prime Minsiter Atal Behari Vajpayee of trying to divide the country on communal lines. Vajpayee was agitating the Lok Sabha over two differing statements of Gujral over Kashmir in media reports. He also brought in the issue of Babri Mosque demolition

Looking at the problems before the Gujral government and the mood of the opposition, the new temper of the Prime Minister is likely to continue in the current session.

This is also likely to divert attention of Parliament from embarrassing and messy situation in the United Front over Bihar and the differences in the United Front to the issue of secularism.

Secularism is one issue that sharpens the divide in the two Houses between the Opposition and the ruling forces. It is also the single largest issue which has the potential of binding a cracking United Front.

The debate on attrocities on Dalits in Maharashtra is likely to provide the ideal situation of this trick to work, as far as facing the Opposition BJP is concerned.