Four former PMs script another flop show

Four former PMs script another flop show
DEVESH KUMAR

NEW DELHI, MAY 28: With most political parties giving it a go-by, the much-publicised gathering of intellectuals at former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar's ashram at the picturesque surroundings of Bhondsi, convened on Sunday to emphasize that "there is an alternative" (vikalp hai), turned out to be non-event.

As expected, former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, under whose regime the process of liberalisation took shape, did not turn up. Neither did he send any message, but two statements pencilled by him were circulated among the gathering.

It turned out that the papers circulated during the meet had, in fact, been prepared by Rao for the Tata Memorial lecture and a leading daily.

The need to evolve an alternative was reiterated by speaker after speaker, but few could outline its contours. The ideologically-opposed camps of Swami Agnivesh and the Left parties (represented by the Communist Party of India) on the one hand, and the Sangh Parivar (represented by the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh) expectedly took swipes at each other, and it was left to the angry old Turk to apply the soothing balm.

If anything, the day-long dialogue proved to be a mere extension of the exercise currently on among the four former prime ministers, V P Singh, Chandra Shekhar, H D Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral, with a few academicians, representatives of trade union and voluntary organisations thrown in for good measure.

Accompanied by veteran socialist Sanat Mehta and senior journalist Prabhash Joshi, the brains behind the show, the four former PMs sat under a huge banner loftily proclaiming `vikalp hai' (There is an alternative), leading a participant to observe rather disdainfully: "If this is the alternative we are looking for, we know which direction we're heading to."

Among the major political parties, only the CPI was represented in the form of D Raja. The Congress party's economic cell secretary Jairam Ramesh, a strong votary of liberalisation, failed to turn up, even though the party was represented by lesser luminaries such as former Uttar Pradesh governor Romesh Bhandari, Surinder Singla and Bhakta Charan Das. Also present were the irrepressible, but out-of-job, Subramanian Swamy and Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha's former economic adviser Mohan Guruswamy, who was sacked by the previous BJP-led government.

The BJP, it is learnt, chose to stay away from the deliberations, even though a large contingent comprising party general secretary K N Govindacharya, former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana, former Rajasthan chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Rajya Sabha MP Bal Apte had been invited.