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Congress braces for the worst from Constitution review panel

The criticism of President K R Narayanan in the latest issue of the Bharatiya Janata Party magazine, BJP Today isn't something to be ignored.

Although BJP spokesperson Venkaiah Naidu today dismissed it as a "personal view", Union law and justice ministry sources feel that the government led by the saffron party will achieve its objective through the 11-member Constitution Review Commission.

The article entitled 'Who is above politics' virtually questions Narayanan's wisdom and, by implication, the President's locus standi, in asking the Vajpayee government to clarify why it wanted to review the Constitution. The story was written under the pseudonym Vidur.

Union law and justice ministry sources said they felt the proposals of all 11 members of the commission would be approved and the government would thus have its own way.

Referring to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's assurance to President Narayanan and others that the basic structure of the Constitution would not be changed, the sources said it was true that the basic structure would not be changed. But the commission could incorporate features that could help the government attain its objectives, they said.

This might justify the fears of the Opposition parties, particularly the Congress, which feels this is a deliberate attempt to prevent party chief Sonia Gandhi from contesting top posts in the country.

Unfortunately for the Congress chief, her rival and former party colleague Purno A Sangma has also been inducted into the review commission. A senior leader now in the Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar, Sangma defiantly announced after his induction that he would raise the 'foreigner issue', the prime target of which will be the Congress chief.

Senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia, known to be close to Sonia Gandhi, recently criticised the Vajpayee government's apparent attempts to politically target his party chief.

" You can see from the tone and tenor of the NCP inductee... that he wants to settle scores with Soniaji. His utterances have sent out a clear message why (the commission) has been appointed and what it is all about," he said.

Speaking about the article, BJP vice-president Jagdish Prasad Mathur said, "Our spokesman (Venkaiah Naidu) has already stated that it is a personal view... There is nothing wrong in airing one's views, so what if it pertains to an important matter," Mathur said.

But legal eagles from the Congress, Kapil Sibal, Hansraj Bharadwaj and P Shivshanker, are preparing for any eventuality, particularly one that will have Sonia Gandhi disqualified from seeking top posts in the country because of her Italian origin.

Sonia Gandhi herself is trying to marshal partymen to her defence while they, on their part, claim that Madam is unconcerned.

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