Commentary/Janardan Thakur

Romesh Bhandari is nothing if not a great public relations man; he can charm even birds out of trees

Romesh Bhandari, the flamboyant governor of Uttar Pradesh, has a penchant for being at the eye of a storm, no matter where he happens to be. For the Bharatiya Janata Party he has been persona non grata ever since he refused to invite the party to form a government in the state, allegedly at the instance of his new political godfathers Mulayam Singh Yadav, businessman-turned- politician Amar Singh and Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. He is now at loggerheads with the country's home minister, creating a crisis for the United Front government.

With powerful men backing him, the diplomat-turned-politician-turned- governor seems to care two hoots for the rest of the world.

It is a strange spectacle -- a governor cocking a snook at the Union home minister to whom he is supposed to report. While the ongoing crisis between Raj Bhavan in Lucknow and the home minister surfaced only after Gupta did some plainspeaking on the state of affairs in UP, there has been a face-off between them for a long time now.

Indrajit Gupta, after all, is not a lightweight politician. He was one of the stalwarts in the Opposition for decades, a scourge for successive governments. It was hard for him to play minister, and initially he spoke more like an Opposition leader, creating all sorts of problems for the prime minister. One occasion was when Bhandari was named UP governor without Gupta being consulted or even informed about the appointment. What was more, Gupta showed nothing but contempt for the man who had been put in the hot seat in Lucknow.

If the rag-tag government now finds itself torn from within, its leaders have only themselves to blame for it. The home minister and the defence minister are at war and the prime minister goes on playing footsie with the governor and his dubious supporters in Lucknow and in Delhi. But then Romesh Bhandari is nothing if not a great public relations man; he can charm even birds out of trees.

Men like Mulayam Singh Yadav and his lesser colleagues in the Samajwadi Party whose cupboards rattle with skeletons are obviously sitting ducks for a governor who has little concern for values. That there is a quid pro quo between Bhandari and the Samajwadi Party is hardly a secret to anyone in UP.

Bhandari has been living up to his reputation Nobody was surprised by the role that he played in UP. Behind his smooth and sophisticated facade this club-swinging governor has always been putty in the hands of his political masters, whether it was Rajiv Gandhi in the past or Deve Gowda at present.

The way Bhandari subverted the will of the people and squandered people's money on his lavish lifestyle he left the Tapases and the Ram Lals and the Channa Reddys far behind. Much before he recommended the imposition of President's rule in the state, Bhandari had declared imperiously that he was not obliged to invite the party which had come first in the assembly election. Indeed, Bhandari would have been only too glad if he could have put Mulayam Singh Yadav on the throne of Uttar Pradesh.

A climber if ever there was one, Bhandari is adept at playing to the tune of his master. Whom does he consider his master? Since he was a loyal creature of the Congress, many thought he had been made UP governor on Narasimha Rao's recommendation, but it soon transpired that he was Deve Gowda's choice. Bhandari had been quick to acknowledge his gratitude to the new master when he declared that 'it was the prime minister who appointed me.'

How had he got round Deve Gowda? He had managed the biggest political fixer of the day, a businessman-turned-politician who had become Mulayam Singh's conscience keeper and who claimed to have the new prime minister 'in my pocket.'

Bhandari has a record of being an obedient 'agent' of his masters in Delhi. He was a charming host and had set a record in throwing lavish parties, whether in Delhi or in Tripura or in Goa. He thrived on pomp and show. No wonder he was such a favourite in Rajiv Gandhi's court. His rise in foreign office had surprised his colleagues.

One diplomat who had watched him closely over the years said Bhandari fancied himself to be 'India's Kissinger.' In diplomatic parlours he was a bit of a joke. It was said that the 'basic difference' between Bhandari and his colleague A P Venkateswaran was 'Venkat thinks before he acts, Romesh acts before he thinks.'

But then Bhandari always had a wide circle of famous (and infamous) friends, among them the notorious arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and the scandalous Chandra Swami. Bhandari joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1950, but spent nearly 27 years in India, and never held the top post in any of the important world capitals. Even so, he became foreign secretary, thanks to his abilities as a PR expert.

On retirement, he put on khadi and fought a Lok Sabha election obviously with the intention of becoming the country's foreign minister! When he lost, Rajiv was kind enough to give him a post in the AICC. Then suddenly his fortunes changed. On August 1, 1988, the phone rang at his Akbar Road residence, and on the line was Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi asking whether Bhandari would like to be the Lt governor of Delhi. So began his gubernatorial career.

And now the golf-playing Romesh has become an albatross around the necks of his new masters. Do they have any choice but to chuck him out?

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