UF frantic as Cong rejects patch-up

NEW DELHI, Nov 18: The United Front today found itself in a seemingly hopeless situation with all compromise formulae being summarily rejec...

NEW DELHI, Nov 18: The United Front today found itself in a seemingly hopeless situation with all compromise formulae being summarily rejected by a Congress at war with itself. Still, front-ranking leaders of the ruling coalition, who comprise the core group, will hold another round of talks tomorrow to discuss the situation arising of the Congress intransigence on the matter. They are likely to make one last-ditch attempt to hammer out an arrangement that could pacify the Congress.

What form the arrangement will take isn’t clear. For, right through the day, the UF toyed with several proposals, each hotly debated but in the end, rejected: keeping the DMK ministers out of the Cabinet but the DMK within the UF; asking the Congress to form a committee to look into the Jain report. But as the day wore on, leaders of the 14-party coalition saw very little scope for a patch-up with the Congress on the issue of DMK’s ouster.

The Samajwadi Party and the CPI(M) were the two constituents who argued hard that the government should be saved “at any cost.” But others said they would rather face elections than buckle under Congress pressure especially on an issue such as the Gandhi dynasty.

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There was a general feeling in the Gujral Government that the situation had spun out of Sitaram Kesri’s control, especially as the signals emanating from Congress were becoming increasingly confusing.

A senior Cabinet Minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that the Gujral Government was in “deep crisis.” He said: “All communication channels with the Congress have snapped because of the struggle within the party on its response to the findings of the Jain Commission report.”

According to him, there was “near unanimity” in the UF that the DMK would not be removed from the coalition, come what may. “It is being made a scapegoat. If the Congressmen still persist with their demand, let them withdraw support to the Government. We’ll go to the polls,” he asserted.

Indeed, the mood within the UF today was one of unease. “Go prepare for the elections,” was all a Union Minister could tell an MP who had come to see him this evening. According to him, all attempts to make the Congressmen see reason had failed. “Even the TMC is trying to dissuade the party from taking a suicidal step,” he claimed.

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Both Gujral and Kesri, sources within the UF claimed, were keen to avert a showdown. There were reports that former Prime Minister V P Singh too had pitched in with his efforts in this direction.