Opinion July 29, 1979, Forty Years Ago: Swearing In
This is the front page of The Indian Express published on July 29, 1979.
This is the front page of The Indian Express published on July 29, 1979.
A nine-member coalition ministry — the first at the Centre — came into being when Charan Singh, prime minister, and his colleagues were sworn in by President N Sanjeeva Reddy. The ceremony took place in the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan, in an atmosphere filled with perfume, thanks to Raj Narain who went round with a bottle of “attar”. Seven of the Cabinet members, including Charan Singh, are from the Janata (S) Party and P L Kaushik is a Socialist. Y B Chavan was the lone Congress nominee who took the oath of office and secrecy. The appointment of six others of his party, which had been announced in the morning, was cancelled at night. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued in the night designated Chavan deputy prime minister in charge of the home ministry.
Govt Won’t Last
The leader of the Janata Parliamentary Party, Jagjivan Ram, said the Charan Singh government would not last long. Speaking at the national executive meeting of the Janata Party, the former deputy prime minister said Charan Singh’s group was in a minority. He had forged “illogical alignments which could not last long”. Both Jagjivan Ram and the Janata Party chief, Chandra Shekhar, asserted that their party would be able to eventually prove its majority in the Lok Sabha.
Congress Uncertain
Charan Singh must have got the message: The contradictions in the combination he heads have come to the fore earlier than expected. The hitch that cropped up in Congress nominees not taking oath of office was not over any programme. The party simply had too many claimants. Even Y B Chavan would have stayed back but for the fact that the Congress did not want the impression to go round that the alliance with the Janata (S) was off. No one doubts that the situation created within the Congress over the distribution of ministerships will evade solution for long.
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