Goes means stays

The shabby flip-flops on Sunder Singh Bhandari have done neither the Union cabinet nor the Governor of Bihar any good. The Vajpayee gover...

The shabby flip-flops on Sunder Singh Bhandari have done neither the Union cabinet nor the Governor of Bihar any good. The Vajpayee government has suffered much embarrassment by this display of indecisiveness and political game-playing. As for Bhandari, if he remains in Patna eventually, it will be seen to be on sufferance rather than with the full support of the central government.

Small wonder that he wants to relinquish his post. None of this invites confidence that benighted Bihar, a state allegedly on the verge of anarchy, is going to be better governed under the new dispensation. The BJP8217;s pretensions about acting correctly and in the wider public interest are exposed by the sort of arguments it has felt compelled to use in this curious business.

The claim, days after President8217;s rule was imposed, that the state needed an apolitical governor is absolutely right but it is a startling admission from quarters that have been defending Bhandari8217;s appointment all along. It is irrelevant that this stokesLaloo Prasad Yadav8217;s rhetoric. More important is how the government is going to explain that someone whose credentials are not appropriate for the job is discovered 24 hours later to be just the right person after all.

Even in terms of realpolitik, the affair has been mismanaged. In deciding to remove Bhandari in the first place, the BJP would have had to weigh the impact on several sides, in its own party, the Congress and the Samata party. In none of those areas has the response been what the BJP would have wished. This would explain the quick about turn on Bhandari.

The Congress is in a dilemma over the dismissal of the RJD government and is still examining its options. Its eventual course of action in Parliament during the vote on the promulgation of President8217;s rule is bound to be a mystery even to itself at this stage. Whatever the final outcome, it is obvious the political calculations of the Congress high command will be little influenced by the BJP8217;s demonstration of good faith involving thereplacement of an RSS leader by someone who is not a politician.

At the first hint of change at Raj Bhavan, the Samata Party naturally scented an opportunity to correct the balance of power in the state and went into overdrive proposing other candidates. Although some of the individuals whose names are being bandied about are indeed apolitical and can be trusted to be impartial and firm, that has not cut much ice with the BJP as a whole.

It is not only the implied denigration of Bhandari that brought out Bihari MLAs in his support. They and some senior party leaders still need to be persuaded that Bihar, as distinct from the BJP, has nothing to lose and everything to gain from the appointment of a governor who owes no loyalty to any political party. So much for the alleged improved level of coordination between the various arms of the BJP. From the fact that the Union cabinet chose to reiterate its advice to the President to dismiss Rabri Devi, ruling out any other constitutional outcome, it is clear thatit was a studied decision. Why then leave the political ends untied, the vote in Parliament wide open, allies at sixes and sevens and the country wondering how the Centre is going to extricate itself from this new mess?