Cooling off to end stalemate

While Gujral in his letter to Kesri is believed to have made an offer of talks to end the standoff, the Congress president let loose teams of MPs to mobilise opinion against elections. As it is, there has been growing panic in the Congress members about impending elections, but they do not know how to get out of the present situation.

In a parallel move, the first time MPs formed a forum of their own and around 50 of them, of different parties, called on President K R Narayanan to plead with him to avoid elections.

If Kesri manages to isolate the hardliners in the Congress Working Committee, he may to begin with set up a small committee of party leaders to negotiate with the United Front to find a way out of the present impasse. The Congress had rejected the offer of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the Jain report because that could prolong the life of Parliament by several months. The Prime Minister is also believed to have suggested that an experts’ committee could be set up which could comprise those suggested by the political parties to go into the Jain findings. He has also urged the Congress to wait till the trial court in Chennai, going into Rajiv Gandhi’s assasination, gives its judgement in January.

There is also the question of the MPs’ pension. The government is letting it be known that the Bill to enhance the MPs’ salaries, which had already been approved by the Union Cabinet, also contains a provision that members would be entitled to life long pension after two years. This would come into effect in May next year when the 11th Lok Sabha completes two years of its term. The existing provisions stipulate entitlement of pensions only after MPs have been members of a House for over four years.

From day one of the crisis, Gujral and Kesri have tried to buy time, and they are reported to moving in tandem. One wants to save his government and the other his Congress presidentship which might be jeopardised if elections are called. The target of the Congress hardliners who have precipitated the present situation, using the Jain Report, is Sitaram Kesri and not Gujral.Though on the face of it, the Speaker’s action took everyone by surprise, it is believed to have the blessings of leaders of major political formations. It suited both Gujral and Kesri and the BJP did not react against it. Atal Behari Vajpayi said he was satisfied with the Speaker’s explanation. The fact is that for all their bravado, no party wants an election now.Sangma told the MPs that he was adjourning the house because he found their behaviour an “appaling denigration of the very institution of Parliament which I will not permit.” He directed political parties to resolve their differences outside the House. The action of the politically savvy Speaker can only bring him kudos from ordinary people who are fed up with the ongoing turmoil in Parliament. It is in line with all that he propounded during the six-day Goldent Jubilee session of Parliament when members had resolved not to rush into the well of the House or disrupts proceedings, which have been forgotten all too easily.