On her husband’s loyal service

By Harihar Swarup
ONE does not know whether to call reinstallation of Rabri Devi as Chief Minister of Bihar a miracle of democracy or a constitutional aberration.

75 Years Ago
Anniversary of Arya Samaj, Hoshiarpur
THE 26th anniversary of the Arya Samaj,Hoshiarpur was celebrated on the 9th, 10th and 11th of March in the School Hall.

Sonia’s silence baffles Vajpayee

Delhi grapevine
By Hari Shankar Vyas

LAST Sunday, the government had a formal discussion with Sonia Gandhi for the first time. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had expressed his desire to meet her and discuss the Bihar issue. Mrs Sonia Gandhi offered to come to his 5 Race Course Road house. Probably it was the first time that she was visiting this place after Rajiv Gandhi vacated it in 1989. With her was Dr Manmohan Singh. The moot question is what transpired between them. Besides the Prime Minister, the government was represented by Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani. Dr Manmohan Singh is a reticent person. Therefore, Congress circles are still groping in the dark as to what transpired at the meeting. But they are confident that the talks could not have been confined just to Bihar. Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani must have tried to read her mind and heart on other issues as well.

But, both of them must have been disappointed. In a disappointing tone, the Prime Minister told some Congressmen that "your Madam does not speak. What can be discussed with her." Only Dr Manmohan Singh spoke for her. Both BJP leaders are non-plussed at the silence she maintained during the meeting. They could not make out anything of her silence. Even at the CWC meetings she prefers to speak very little. Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani are gasping as to how to make a rapport with her and how to open channels of dialogue.

Cong targets George

The BJP is indeed perturbed over the Congress strategy to corner Mr George Fernandes. The party believes the Congress has chosen him as the target to keep him busy in his own affairs and to put him on the defensive. Mr Fernandes was proving to be the Man Friday for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The BJP has been using him as its secular mask. Whether it is criticism of the BJP-led coalition over the Hindutva overtones in the Pokhran blast or Grahm Stain’s murder in Orissa, the BJP and the Vajpayee government have fallen back on Mr Fernandes for the immaculate oratorial skills of the veteran Socialist. But, suddenly, the BJP strategists are realising the perils of their government’s overdependence on George. They are now struggling to bring the party out from his influence. But, they say, it’s too late.

Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani is believed to have realised that Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat’s sack would be negative when the latter called on him on December 10. However, true to his image, he refused to intervene in a matter which Mr Vajpayee was dealing directly, and advised the Admiral to meet the President. The BJP is all the more perturbed over this episode, since till now the defence forces used to be its strong citadel, politically speaking. But, it is for the first time in the history of India that a services chief was ousted unceremoniously, and that happened in the BJP regime. The BJP strategists are still groping in the dark about George’s intentions behind this step. However, they are sure that Mr Fernandes had made it a prestige issue. They fear the happening of July 19, 1979, when George trained his guns at Morarji Desai, though only a day earlier, he had put up a strong defence of the then Prime Minister.

Govt vs DD

The government may soon give up before the Prasar Bharati Board and officials. The manner in which the Board members have started airing their views on autonomy and are planning to meet the Prime Minister, and the stories about reported intervention of the government that have started trickling out of newsrooms, the government may have to make a temporary retreat. The government did score a major victory when the Board while granting extension to Aaj Tak, was asked to change its format from the news-based programme to a current affairs programme. However, for how long it can fight the bureaucracy is still a million rupee question.

Even a minister like Pramod Mahajan could not fight with the bureaucracy for once. The BJP thought that since it was in power, DD would at least listen to its genuine demand and go by the list of its panelists for the Budget discussion. But DD officials would not listen to it. The party sent a list of three panelists to DD. First DD refused to call any of them. When Mr Mahajan intervened, it decided to call two. It asked the party which two it would like to call. But, to its dismay, it found that the one whom the party preferred to drop, had been called.

Star scores

The bureaucracy really believes in the idiom that where there is a will, there is a way. And it happened right under the nose of Pramod Mahajan. STAR television has been itching to score over other channels in news reporting, particularly its speed. The I & B Minister, Mr Pramod Mahajan, wants to give them an equal opportunity, but still a lead to Doordarshan. The entire media is watching with keen interest a wrestling competition between the government and STAR ever since he took over the reins of the ministry. But, on the day of the Budget, STAR got the permission to uplink the Prime Minister’s customary comment on the Budget right from Parliament House.

The officer in the PIB thought that if it is so, why should not PIB take the lead and ask the Lok Sabha Secretariat. On its own to provide this facility. So she asked one of her colleagues to initiate a note to this effect. With extraordinary alacrity, the proposal was mooted and got cleared from the Lok Sabha Secretariat and even as Pramod Mahajan was watching DD, someone told him that the Prime Minister’s comment on the Budget had already been telecast on STAR. Mr Mahajan was furious. How come it had been uplinked directly from Parliament House. While the preliminary inquiry revealed that it was on the prompting of the STAR official that the officer in the PIB took this initiative. However, the axe seems to be falling on another junior officer who mooted the proposal at her behest.

On her husband’s loyal service

By Harihar Swarup

ONE does not know whether to call reinstallation of Rabri Devi as Chief Minister of Bihar a miracle of democracy or a constitutional aberration. She has created history by resuming the highest office within 25 days of unceremonious dismissal and, thereby, setting a new record. Never before in India’s 50-year-old democracy has a Chief Minister been so disgracefully sacked by invocation of Article 356 and restored so triumphantly. A jurist sought to describe the event as "a constitutional coup".

Resurrection of Rabri Devi, the first-ever woman Chief Minister of Bihar, is considered a miracle of democracy because in no other system and, possibly, in no other country a mere housewife, whose educational qualification is zero, can rise to the number one position in a state and stage a comeback after being thrown back in the kitchen. Forty-year-old Rabri Devi truly belongs to kitchen where she spent most part of her life having been married to ebullient Laloo Prasad Yadav when she was barely 15. Apart from kitchen, her another avocation was giving birth and bringing up nine children in her 25-year long marital life. She has been a 100 per cent devoted wife — a devout Hindu "pativrata".

Her 20-month rule and her second investiture last week has been an aberration in the sense that the Rabri government has been run by proxy by her husband. Laloo Yadav reads the files, issues directives and takes all vital decisions while Rabri signs on the dotted lines pin-pointed by her husband. Having no formal education, she had to practice for days to afflix her signature on files. That was, perhaps, the reason that when she relinquished office as many as 25,000 files were pending for her disposal.

It is widely said that even from his hospital bed and the prison cell Laloo Yadav ran the government; of course, through his godly wife. Laloo will obviously be the power behind the throne in the second incarnation of his wife as Chief Minister of the second most populous state of the union.

It was in fitting with the scheme of things that Laloo Yadav presided over the meeting of the RJD Legislature Party, which re-elected his wife as the leader, paving the way for her swearing-in by the Governor. Mr Sunder Singh Bhandari, who had only on February 12 so vehemently recommended her sacking. Mark the words of Laloo Yadav while declaring his wife elected as leader of the RJD L.P.: "I asked the legislators to elect their leader and they reaffirmed their faith in Rabri Devi".

Exactly 20 months back, having been dethroned following neck-deep involvement in the mother of all scams, known as the fodder scam, Laloo Yadav surprised his wife by asking her to succeed him as Chief Minister of Bihar. She was dazed and dumbfounded. And, what was the reply of the orthodox housewife: "Humko chhor diya jaye" (please leave me out). To Rabri, her husband is the "Ram" and she can undergo "agni pariksha" (test by walking through fire) to prove her loyalty. She accepted the dictate of her husband as if it was the command of the God and jumped into the treacherous world of politics; hitherto she has seen political manipulation only from hindsight.

She went on record saying she began her first term: "It is not right to say that I knew nothing of politics. After all, I have been with him (Laloo Yadav) for 25 years now. And, politics has always been an important part of our lives".

Rabri’s first test came when she was to make her maiden visit to Delhi as Chief Minister and meet so many top leaders; the President, the Prime Minister, Central ministers and MPs of her own party. Laloo Yadav was admitted in Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna. A nervous Rabri visited her husband and expressed her inability to visit Delhi and confront so many high-ups. "Hamse nahin hoga", she told her husband but Laloo bucked her up saying "Koi darne ki baat nahin hai, Saab theek ho jayega" (no need to scare, everything will be alright). Three days stay in Delhi enabled her to know the hollowness of the Union Capital’s mandarins. She returned to Patna triumphantly; Laloo Yadav proved right.

Gradually Rabri became more confident, began talking to the Press, giving interviews and replying to impromptu questions by electronic media. Evidently, having no knowledge of English she spoke in heavily Bihari accented and faltering Hindi but she demonstrated two qualities; firmness and robust common-sense. To scribes she gave good copy; something different than routine.

When Laloo was in Patna’s medical institute, an interviewer asked her if she regularly meets her husband?

Pat came an assertive reply: "Aurat hoon unki, Woh beemar hain; akele hain; to kyon nahin jaon main" (I am his wife. He is sick; he is alone. Why shouldn’t I go to him).

Rabri Devi is no longer a shy housewife and afraid of visiting Delhi as she begins her second term among pulls and pressures of her own party, pressure of the Centre and a hostile Governor waiting to strike at the first opportunity. But her husband is there to guide her; Laloo Yadav is the de facto Chief Minister.

75 YEARS AGO

Anniversary of Arya Samaj, Hoshiarpur

THE 26th anniversary of the Arya Samaj,Hoshiarpur was celebrated on the 9th, 10th and 11th of March in the School Hall. The Nagarkirtan and Sankirtan were held on the 12th. The bhajan mandalis passed through all the main streets of the town. Lala Sain Dasji, MA; and Pt Soma Devaji delivered learned addresses.

Lectures were delivered by Mahatma Hans Rajji, M.Ram Chandji and others.

During the jalsa days, a conference, under the presidency of M. Hans Rajji, of all the members and sympathisers of the Samaj, was held to discuss the important subject "Hindu Sangathan and Arya Samaj".

On an appeal by M. Hans Rajji nearly Rs 900 were collected.