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Cabinet drops move to sack Rabri

Avoiding a confrontation with President K R Narayanan, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government tonight decided against referring back to him its controversial recommendation to dismiss the Rabri Devi government in Bihar.

The decision was taken at an hour-long meeting of the Union Cabinet presided over by Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani.

With this, the five-day political drama over Bihar appears to have ended.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Advani said the Cabinet's decision was unanimous.

He said he had conveyed the decision to the President on telephone and a formal communication would be sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan later tonight or tomorrow.

Advani said the Cabinet felt the situation in Bihar still warranted imposition of President's rule. But it was also felt that since the President had asked the government to reconsider its recommendation, "we must respect his wishes. Therefore, at this stage, we will not pursue the matter further".

Significantly, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Surjit Singh Barnala, whose Shiromani Akali Dal had opposed the invocation of Article 356 as a matter of principle, participated in the Cabinet meeting today. Barnala had skipped the September 22 meeting at which it was decided to recommend imposition of President's rule in Bihar citing breakdown of law and order.

Others who participated in tonight's meeting included Sushma Swaraj, P R Kumaramangalam, Sikandar Bakht, Ramakrishna Hegde, and George Fernandes. Hegde too had missed the September 22 meeting, but had sent a fax message to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying it would be a "monumental blunder" to invoke Article 356 in Bihar.

Yesterday, after the President had returned the recommendation to the Cabinet for reconsideration, Advani had told reporters that a decision would be taken only after Vajpayee returned from his foreign tour.

Today, he said the President's reaction was conveyed to the prime minister in New York immediately and the latter suggested that it would be appropriate for the Cabinet to meet and take a quick decision.

So, Advani convened the meeting today to take the decision.

This is the second time the Union government has decided to avoid any confrontation with the President on the issue of imposing central rule in a state.

Last year, the Inder Kumar Gujral government had recommended to the President the dismissal of Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in Uttar Pradesh. But the President referred the recommendation back to the government and the move was subsequently dropped.

UNI

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