Race Course Road

India Today
January 4, 1999

RACE COURSE ROAD
Courting Jayalalitha

Vajpayee's bravado vanishes when dealing with Amma.

Prabhu Chawla

Those who tend to retain power at any cost are likely to lose it faster than they realise. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it seems, is yet to grasp this fundamental truth of politics. While he has displayed exemplary courage in taking on the might of the Sangh Parivar, the way he is caving in to the demands of Jayalalitha, the uncrowned queen from Chennai, is inexplicable. Clearly, Vajpayee's newly acquired bravado evaporates when it came to handling the AIADMK chief.

In trying to extricate Jayalalitha from the many messy corruption charges hounding her, all established rules of political ethics appear to have been thrown to the winds. Last week, the Union Government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court questioning the authority of the Tamil Nadu Government to refer all the corruption cases to special courts for a speedy trial. There can be no justification for this belated action except the prime minister's political convenience. Even the timing is quite intriguing. The Union Law Ministry, headed by M. Thambi Durai, a Jayalalitha courtier, kept quiet for over nine months as Jayalalitha battled in various courts. Not surprisingly, both the Prime Minister's Office and its law officials woke up soon after her attempts to scuttle the judicial proceedings against her failed. If there was any legal flaw in the Tamil Nadu Government's moves, the Centre should have objected right at the outset when Jayalalitha approached the apex court for justice. In fact, Vajpayee could have advised her to approach the court for quick disposal of cases against her to enable her to prove her innocence and come clean. But that was not to be since Jayalalitha and her 18 MPs are crucial to the survival of the Vajpayee Government.

The BJP Government is also being held responsible for the transfer of Madras High Court Chief Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan who dealt with most of Jayalalitha's cases. The Government, in the existing system, has no role in the transfer and appointment of judges, which remain the prerogative of the judiciary. If that damaging perception wasn't enough, Vajpayee is now under pressure to appoint R.K. Raghavan, an IPS officer from Tamil Nadu, as the CBI chief in place of the incumbent Trinath Mishra. Though a highly committed officer, Raghavan has spent most of his 30-year service in the Intelligence Bureau and on non-investigative assignments. Jayalalitha's plea is that Raghavan is being hounded by the DMK Government. Both Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani were said to be in favour of Raghavan since Home Secretary Balmiki Prashad Singh and Arvind Verma, former secretary (personnel), pushed his case in the selection panel.

To make matters worse are reports that the prime minister may take away the lucrative Petroleum Ministry from K. Ramamurthy simply because he defied the AIADMK deity. Vajpayee has enough reasons to transfer him; there have been many questionable decisions taken by his ministry. But as things stand, if he is eventually dropped, the credit would go to Jayalalitha. At a time when Vajpayee appears to have become assertive, even defiant, such concessions to the allies only mean one thing -- disaster for his credibility. Vajpayee would do well to remember what Advani once said in a different context: when asked to bend, don't crawl.

Issue Contents | Write to us | Subscriptions | Syndication