NEW DELHI, February 23: While President K R Narayanan is learnt to have strongly expressed to the Prime Minister his unhappiness with Romesh Bhandari's functioning, I K Gujral has washed his hands off the whole affair. The President is awaiting the advice of the Prime Minister on the continuation of Bhandari as the governor of Uttar Pradesh, but Gujral left the capital Monday morning for Calicut and will be out for three days.The last two days' drama in Uttar Pradesh is unprecedented in more ways than one. Rare are instances when the President has expressed strong sentiments to the Prime Minister and the chief executive chose to ignore them. Zail Singh had written Rajiv Gandhi on the infamous Postal Bill, and Shankar Dayal Sharma had expressed his displeasure on the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
There are two opinions on the President's powers to remove a Governor, who continues in office at his pleasure. One school of thought has it that he has the inherent powers to act on his own, and the BJPleaders have made this argument. But the second view is that he has to go by the advice of the Cabinet.
He was told by some legal advisors he consulted on Sunday that he should write to the Prime Minister soliciting his advice, and if he does not hear back from Gujral, he can go ahead and give Bhandari the sack.
There has been no sign of a Cabinet meeting since the crisis erupted in UP. The Union Cabinet has not met for over a month. And the Prime Minister chose the line of least resistance and left town.
Ironically, during the last UP crisis following the withdrawal of support by Mayawati to the Kalyan Singh Government, the Union Cabinet had met for 17 hours even before Governor Bhandari had sent the Centre his report!
The Cabinet's approval is not necessary to replace a Governor. The Prime Minister can take the decision himself. But then Gujral has functioned more as the chairman of a UF committee than a Prime Minister.
With Janata Dal, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Harkishen Singh Surjeet havingwelcomed Romesh Bhandari's actions in the last two days, there is no way they will agree to his dismissal or replacement.
It must also be a rare case that the President expresses a view to a governor, as Narayanan did to Bhandari, that Kalyan Singh must be given a chance to test his majority on the floor of the House and the Governor paid no heed to it.
It remains to be seen whether Romesh Bhandari challenges the High Court's order.If he does, it will be the first time that a governor will be opposed by the government of the very state he represents, and will create an untenable situation. The fact of the matter is that Amethi, where Congress candidate Satish Sharma has alleged massive rigging by BJP nominee Sanjay Singh, sent shivers down the spines of several Congress and UF leaders facing the polls on Feb 22 like Mulayam Singh Yadav in Sambhal, Mayawati in Akbarpur, N D Tiwari in Nainital and Jitendra Prasada's brother in Shajehanpur. Hence the strike on the eve of the elections. But the movebackfired,instead of turning the tables on the BJP. Vajpayee's fast was more a political `brahmastra' than a moral weapon.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
