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THE NATION:
CONGRESS
No
Tears For Rao
Post-sentence,
the former prime minister finds rivals in the party itching to settle
scores with him
By Lakshmi
Iyer
Public
memory may be short. But what could be shorter and nastier is a political
party's sympathy. That is what former prime minister Pamulaparti Venkata
Narasimha Rao is learning to his dismay these days. The feeble show of
solidarity that the Congress put up when he was convicted on September
29 disappeared less than two weeks later when Rao was sentenced. Minutes
after Additional Sessions Judge Ajit Bharihoke sentenced Rao to three
years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh following
his conviction in the Rs 3-crore Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) pay-off
case, senior leaders such as Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia and Motilal
Vora met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to persuade her to take some
drastic action. Even expulsion, in the same way as her predecessor Sitaram
Kesri dealt with Sukh Ram. Or much like Rao himself in 1996 when he dissuaded
his hawala case tainted colleagues like Scindia, Balram Jakhar, Buta Singh
and Jagannath Mishra from contesting the Lok Sabha elections.
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| Rao
after the verdict |
The party's
sympathy was with Rao until the day the special court was to hand out
its sentence. Even as former Union minister Margaret Alva heard the arguments
on the sentence, AICC Secretary Anil Shastri gave away the first signs
of withdrawal of solidarity cover. "The JMM pay-off case was more
to save his (Rao's) prime ministership. The party has ethics and a value
system. It cannot defend any corrupt practice," he said. Former UPCC
president Salman Khurshid echoed similar views. "It (the JMM case
verdict) cannot be a trial of the political party that has already paid
its price for corruption charges in three elections. The party cannot
be subjected to double jeopardy," he says.
Party functionaries
point out that the Congress began to distance itself from the former prime
minister the moment the BJP dubbed Rao's conviction the "reflection
of Congress culture". The party recoiled at the thought of facing
elections to four state assemblies early next year with the ignominy of
its former prime minister being convicted in a corruption case. Congressmen
began asserting that Rao would have to fight his legal battle alone, even
after his aides went to town propounding that the former prime minister
had done "everything" in the interest of the Congress and its
government.
A Question
Of Image: Would the party be able to shed its "corrupt image"
simply by ostracising Rao? Not quite, feel leaders who are already sceptical
about Sonia's stewardship. According to them, if corruption was such a
stigma, why was the party leadership not squirming about continuing its
alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu or with Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya
Janata Dal in Bihar? In fact, on the day Jayalalitha was convicted, Arjun
Singh asserted that his party's alliance with the AIADMK would continue.
Sonia loyalists such as Shastri have even come up with quaint arguments
to justify electoral alliances with convicted political leaders. Shastri
says, "Alliances with other political parties are guided by what
is in the electoral interest of our party. We cannot impose our moral
standards on others."
Dissidents
in the party, however, feel the leadership's move to isolate Rao is a
handiwork of the Arjun Singh-Scindia-Vora troika. According to party circles,
hawala-tainted Scindia and Vora are particularly keen about serving just
desserts to Rao. They have been building their case ever since Sonia visited
Rao at his residence on September 29 to commiserate with him upon his
conviction. All three leaders have protested against displaying solidarity
and sympathy for Rao. They feel they would be avenged only when Rao is
thrown out of the party.
The feelings
in the Rao camp over the idea of ouster of its leader is mixed. "Rao
has never sought any help from the party to fight his legal battle. In
fact he stepped down as Congress president in September 1996 after he
was charge-sheeted in the Lakhubhai Pathak case," says former Union
minister Bhuvnesh Chaturvedi. Another Rao aide points out that any drastic
step would only boomerang on Sonia. "Rao would gain the sympathy
of partymen," he says. Neutral leaders dismiss the oust-Rao campaign
as mere posturing. "Sonia will never expel Rao. She is fanning the
expulsion demand only to acquaint Rao with her magnanimity," one
of them says. This group does not see any sign of sympathy welling up
for the former prime minister either. "Rao would have gained the
respect of partymen if he had not put up a mercy petition on the term
of his sentence. His request for clemency was quite obnoxious," a
former MP says.
Nevertheless,
the queue outside 9 Motilal Nehru Marg-Rao's residence-is growing. A number
of senior leaders have been calling on Rao. These include foes such as
former Union minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief and friends like Manmohan Singh.
Personally, for Rao, he received his last grace when Bharihoke suspended
his sentence until November 8, giving him time to appeal. He had been
spared the ignominy of incarceration even if such a penalty seemed well
deserved.
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