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COVER STORY: NDA
Fernandes Simply Had To Go
What
was not said was the general belief that someone else in the defence minister's
household had. But Jaitly refused to take heed. Despite the media furore
and the fiercely adverse publicity, she persisted with her stand of not
having committed any offence by accepting a donation for her party's national
convention.
To some extent, her intransigence stemmed from
the outcome of the NDA meeting on March 14. Fernandes repeated his offer
to resign, but the NDA partners wouldn't hear of it. Outside the NDA,
the Telugu Desam with its 29 MPs, angry with Tehelka for an earlier story
on the assets of its chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, backed the Government.
Janata Dal (U) chief Sharad Yadav too was behind Fernandes despite his
partymen taking a few pot shots. It was felt that after Laxman's departure,
the Government could ride out the storm. The power of public opinion in
the age of TV was seriously underestimated.
Of course, there were three exceptions. Within
the NDA, Minister of State for Social Welfare and Empowerment Maneka Gandhi
(an Independent) and Minister of State for Commerce Omar Farooq Abdullah
(representing the National Conference) suggested that Fernandes should
resign. They invoked the ire of Samata Party leader and Minister of Agriculture
Nitish Kumar.
The NDA initially backed George
but didn't bargain for Jaya Jaitly's
obduracy and TV's overwhelming
power. |
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Outside the meeting, another NDA partner, the
Trinamool was going through an existential dilemma. Always a great one
for boycotts and sulks, Mamata stayed away from the cabinet meeting the
previous evening. The reason wasn't her anguish over corruption. A fanatical
stickler for honesty, Mamata flew into a rage when she heard that the
braggart Samata Party treasurer R.K. Jain had described her as 70 per
cent manageable in the Tehelka tapes. She wrote out her resignation letter
and would have despatched it to Vajpayee had she not been dissuaded by
some of her MPs to ignore the loose talk of an unknown fixer.
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Vajpayee's honeymoon with the country
which began with his one-vote defeat in 1999 is well and truly over.
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For a while, Mamata held her peace but a letter
was sent to the prime minister urging him to accept Fernandes' resignation
offer. Meanwhile, the Trinamool let it be known that it was going to be
a case of either Fernandes or Mamata. Actually, Mamata was disturbed by
the hostile middle-class reaction to yet another scam. She now saw the
BJP as a liability and could risk fighting the West Bengal polls without
its help.
Mamata's posturing introduced cracks in the
NDA, precisely as the belligerent Opposition was hoping for. There was
just no way the Government could sacrifice someone like Fernandes for
the sake of Mamata, whose feeble commitment to the NDA depended entirely
on her moods and compulsions in West Bengal. But even the Government's
ability to stick by Fernandes depended on removing extraneous irritants.
Jaitly's refusal to resign as Samata president-despite clear signals from
senior partymen like Nitish Kumar-put the entire focus on Fernandes, the
man who had been persistently targeted since he rode roughshod over entrenched
interests in the defence establishment. The Opposition said it wouldn't
let Parliament function as long as Fernandes remained a minister.
It was Jaitly's refusal
to resign at the same time as Laxman that put Fernandes in the eye of
the storm. Smelling blood, the Opposition prepared for a long-haul battle
that it believed would block the budget, create a constitutional crisis
and, if lucky, even lead to the Government's collapse.
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STILL SECOND: Advani has emerged unscathed but could become more
assertive
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By the morning of March 15, two things were clear:
the Opposition wouldn't let Parliament function and, consequently, there
was very little hope of Fernandes being able to give his meticulously
researched defence to MPs.
As both Houses were adjourned, Parliamentary
Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan, Culture Minister Ananth Kumar, Rural
Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Jaitley met Vajpayee. They
told him that unless the crisis was defused fast, the Government would
suffer even more. They advised decisiveness to break out of the logjam
over Fernandes, a suggestion repeated to Vajpayee by President K.R. Narayanan
that afternoon.
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Erosion of the
prime minister's unquestioned authority could herald a new phase
of a more assertive Advani.
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For Vajpayee, this could only mean one thing-Fernandes
would have to go. It was a cruel step as there were no doubts in the Cabinet
over Fernandes' integrity. But it had to be done and Jaswant Singh was
sent to do the unpleasant job. On the evening of March 15, Fernandes resigned,
as did Jaitly. The Government survived the assault but the Opposition
got its way on every count. The Government's reputation was in shreds
and only Fernandes managed to salvage a degree of personal honour. The
NDA is largely intact but in two months, two components (the PMK and Trinamool),
with 14 MPs, of a delicate arrangement had fallen off. Vajpayee's authority
has been eroded and this may signal a new phase of an assertive Advani.
The power equations in the Government could change.
The honeymoon with Vajpayee that began with the one-vote
defeat two years ago has been soured by sleaze. This Government too has
been shown to have feet of clay.
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