Rao Denied Bail, Prospect Of Going To Prison Looms

Even before the news could sink in, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Rao in the St Kitts forgery case, thus virtually sealing the former Prime Minister's political destiny. Rao had quit as Congress president six days back, but clung to the presidentship of the Congress Parliamentary Party.

While the government braced itself to meet the unprecedented situation, SPG secretary Ratnakar Rao approached the law ministry for advice on how the SPG would be able to ensure Rao's security in case he was sent to jail. Ratnakar Rao has cited the SPG Act which requires the SPG to provide fool proof 24-hour security to former prime ministers under all conditions.

 

Ratnakar Rao also weighed the option of moving court to seek its direction on how the SPG was to fulfill its obligations in the event of Rao's arrest.

Cabinet secretary Satish Chandra went into a huddle with top government officials to take stock of the situation.

Prime Minister Deve Gowda, who had been a frequent visitor to Rao's residence, skipped his almost ritual courtesy call yesterday, despite being present in the capital. It would have been his 25th visit, had he been to 9, Motilal Nehru Marg yesterday.

However, a lot of significance is being attached to Gowda's two-hour visit to Supreme Court Chief Justice A M Ahmadi's house late last night. Official sources were tight-lipped on this.

The political reverberations of yesterday's developments are feared to be far-reaching. Bureaucratic and political circles were abuzz with talks of the country witnessing a major realignment of political forces in the coming two weeks.

The political fallout cast a pall over the skittish stock markets with the 30-scrip Bombay stock exchange index tumbling 36 points to 3307.05. The news of Rao being denied anticipatory bail triggered selling pressure as operators feared political instability if Rao was arrested immediately on appearing before the trial court on Monday.

Senior government sources said Prime Minister Deve Gowda was quite uneasy with the developments in the Congress following Rao's resignation as party president -- especially since his allies, the Left, have started talking of a broad secular front.

While Rao loyalists in the Congress openly expressed their desire to dethrone Gowda for not standing by their leader, who always "stood by the Prime Minister", the anti-Rao factions reasserted their desire to join the government. Both loyalists and Rao baiters seem united in their stand for a claim on the leadership of the government by party president Sitaram Kesri.

But Gowda yesterday ruled out any threat to his government following the change in Congress leadership. He hoped the new Congress president would continue the party's support the United Front government.

In 9, Motilal Nehru Marg, it was relatively quiet yesterday. Sitaram Kesri was one of the few party leaders to call on Rao. Others who called included Jagannath Mishra, NKP Salve, Bhubanesh Chaturvedi and RK Dhawan.

Rao was huddled with his legal team, led by BP Rao and Kapil Sibal, the defeated Congress nominee from south Delhi, till late in the evening.