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Humilated Gurjal leaves Janata Dal meet
The prime minister had enough. Apparently upset by slogans shouted by a section of his own party, Inder Kumar Gujral walked out of the Talkatora stadium in New Delhi where the Janata Dal was holding its two-day national convention.
The heckling party members questioned his role in shielding former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and in allowing three members of Laloo Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal to continue as ministers in his cabinet.
The sloganeering began after Gujral emphasised the need for morality in the country's polity and said the country had suffered much due to the erosion of moral values in political parties. He chose not to elaborate further but it sparked off a reaction from workers who agitatedly demanded why he had let the RJD ministers continue in his ministry when the party was not part of the United Front.
The prime minister, who was taken aback by the sudden outburst, immediately ended the inaugural address and left the venue.
"Chunaoti netikta ki hai, aur pichhle kai mahinon se hum uski saza bhog rahe hain (the challenge is of morality, and we are paying a heavy price for it)," Gujral said, cautioning the party against any erosion of moral values.
Emphasising the need for transparency in political life, the prime minister said there should be no "double standards" while waging a war against corruption.
Referring to Jayaprakash Narayan's movement, Gujral called upon the countrymen to spread brotherhood and amity among various communities and guard against division on the lines of caste and creed.
The Dal's national council and delegate convention was inaugurated in the Talkatora stadium in Jayaprakash Nagar soon after rich tributes were paid to former Orissa chief minister Biju Patnaik, Jammu Prasad Shastri and Ghasi Ram Majhi, a tribal leader of Orissa.
The inaugural session started off on an acrimonious note when an Orissa leader refused to come to the dias to garland the portrait of Biju Patnaik despite repeated requests from party president Sharad Yadav.
The prime minister, who was honoured with a turban, green like the party's flag, began his address nostalgically, harking back to the days of Partition. He said the country had honoured a refugee like him by making him the prime minister in the 50th year of Independence. This was possible, he said, due to the values and culture of India, which always believed in equality and social harmony over all else.
It was when he went on to describe to moral degradation that the agitated party members rose to question his decisions.
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