Laloo8217;s limits

Not many will agree that the Bihar Governor's decision at long last not to stand any more between law and Laloo Prasad Yadav had been delay...

Not many will agree that the Bihar Governor8217;s decision at long last not to stand any more between law and Laloo Prasad Yadav had been delayed thus far only by the bulk of the evidence against the Chief Minister he had to study. A. R. Kidwai8217;s apology had, in fact, suggested flimsiness of the evidence 8212; in addition, of course, to such other arguments as Laloo8217;s supposed charisma that somehow placed him above all suspicion and investigation, not to speak of sacrilegious prosecution, in the Rs 950-crore fodder scam.

If the same deferential Governor has now come out with his sanction for the Central Bureau of Investigation to put the people8217;s leader in the dock and through the due process of law, it is because almost everyone else has by now been convinced of the case for doing so.

Kidwai8217;s defence of the messiah of the poor to have presided over the mega scam of possibly unmatched sordidness could not have been rejected more clearly and contemptuously by the State that has repeatedly demonstrated support for the Opposition demand for the first step towards justice that he has just been forced to take. The logic of the special immunity claimed for Laloo even while politicians and officials of known closeness to him were being caught in the investigators8217; net has been lost on the common man in the State and outside. Kidwai deserves qualified credit for the belated recognition of the bounds of constitutional and conventional propriety that he has refrained from crossing. Laloo, however, cannot be allowed to continue to be blissfully unaware of his limits.

The Chief Minister has responded to the challenge in his inimitably recalcitrant manner. By refusing to resign, he has only reinforced the predominant public impression created by his opposition to the idea of letting the law run its course 8212; his utter unwillingness to face the investigation without official armour. There should be no surprise that he pretends not to see why it is the demand of the elementary norms of democracy that he does not stay on in power while facing prosecution.

He can only be expected to evade the issue by projecting it as political, even if that position no longer enjoys significant support inside his own party, at the national level in particular, or among the United Front allies, including the Left and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who has urged him to uphold the spirit of democracy. It is only sustained popular pressure that can make him step down and ensure that authors of yet another scam are not allowed to go unpunished. There should be no need to add that resignations will be the only right response from Laloo8217;s Cabinet colleagues Bhola Ram Toofan and Vidya Sagar Nishad to Kidwai8217;s nod for the CBI prosecution against them.

It is a grim challenge that the situation poses for the Gujral Government. The UF rulers can rise to it only by summoning readiness to discharge their responsibility on two counts. The Union Council of Ministers, in the first place, cannot continue to accommodate Chandradeo Prasad Verma against whom also Kidwai has sanctioned prosecution, and the Prime Minister must see the importance of dispelling impressions of Central partisanship in the matter. Even more important will be the preparedness of the Centre to ensure that the rule of law prevails over the Laloo raj in Bihar.