Coalition blues in Haryana

Haryana Lok Dal chief Om Prakash Chautala's demand for the Bansi Lal Government's dismissal has caught the Union Government on the wrong foot.

PRAVEEN SWAMI
in Chandigarh

FOR the Bharatiya Janata Party, the fact that it commands the support of both the ruling party and the main Opposition group in Haryana is turning out to be a mixed blessing. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalitha's tactics appear to have inspired Haryana Lok Dal (HLD) chief Om Prakash Chautala to chart out a new political strategy that could have unpredictable consequences. On September 10, Chautala led a delegation of his party's Members of Parliament and Members of the Legislative Assembly to meet Union Home Minister L.K. Advani and demanded the dismissal of Government in Haryana led by Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) leader Bansi Lal.

Given that the HVP's coalition partner in Haryana is the BJP, Advani's predicament is obvious. The fact that the "unconditional support" Chautala insists that his four MPs extend to the BJP now comes with strings attached has been lost on no one, least of all the Home Minister.

Chautala's meeting with Advani came after months of confrontation with the HVP-led Government. Senior HLD leaders had for long demanded that since their party had four MPs supporting the A.B. Vajpayee Government compared to the HVP's one, the BJP owed them a State-level quid pro quo. The HLD's memorandum offered several reasons why the BJP ought to sever its links with the HVP. The crime rate, it claimed, had risen dramatically in the State with 510 murders and 261 rapes recorded between April and July this year. The five-page memorandum also demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into alleged malpractices in recruitment to the police force as well as other scandals the HLD claimed Chief Minister Bansi Lal and his relatives were involved in. Chautala later told reporters: "Lawlessness and corruption have reached such levels that Haryana has become worse than Bihar."

Another demand in the memorandum, which called for an early completion of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal, seems designed to embarrass the BJP. The construction of the canal has been resisted by the Shiromani Akali Dal, another ally of the BJP, and any Union Government initiative on the issue would provoke a confrontation.

SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
Chief Minister Bansi Lal.

Advani's reaction to the demands was not made public. Yet, Chautala's remarks, coming as they did when the BJP was in the middle of a discussion on the fate of the Bihar Government, gave them an unmistakable sharpness.

However, Chautala denied that his party was twisting its coalition partner's arm. "We do not believe in the politics of pressure," he said and assured the BJP that the HLD would continue to support it irrespective of its decision on the Bansi Lal Government. The demand, Chautala said, was motivated by concern for Haryana's well-being rather than narrow political ends.

Bansi Lal, confident of the future of his Government, argued that Chautala's figures on crime in the State were overstated. He refuted the other allegations as well.

However, there are signs of trouble in his party's ranks. The latest crisis came with the summary sacking of Public Works Minister Dharamvir Yadav on September 13. A day earlier, Yadav had criticised Bansi Lal at a rally in his constituency and said that the Chief Minister was preparing the ground to ally himself with the Congress(I). More specifically, Yadav charged the Chief Minister with corruption; he also said that Bansi Lal was pampering his constituency of Bhiwani at the expense of the rest of the State. Bansi Lal's son and MP, Surinder Singh, as well as daughter Saroj Siwach, Yadav alleged, had become extra-constitutional centres of power.

Yadav's dismissal was perhaps predictable. But what was less predictable was his future in the party. His attack did not invite summary expulsion from the party, and the reason for this is that the HVP-BJP alliance enjoys the most insecure of majorities - just 46 MLAs in a House of 90. Any expulsion from the HVP would leave the Government entirely dependent on the 10 independent MLAs. This precarious balance of power could encourage others in the party's ranks to break free should the BJP send out any sign of abandoning its ally in Haryana.

SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
HLD leader Om Prakash Chautala.

At present Chautala's group of 22 MLAs is too small to form a government along with either the Congress(I) or the BJP. But, as the Chief Minister is only too aware, the sands of Haryana politics can shift with little warning.

Bansi Lal's worries do not end in the State Assembly. The large spectrum of voters who are incensed by the Government's privatisation programme has lately grown to include State Government employees. The Government invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to put down a strike called by the Haryana Karamchari Mahasangh, the apex union of government employees, on September 17 to protest against the privatisation of the state-run power distribution and transportation enterprises and to press for the implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission's recommendations.

Dozens of union leaders were arrested and prohibitory orders were imposed in all districts. Union officials say that the strike is the outcome of Bansi Lal's rejection of a compromise package that was negotiated in May. Last year, aggressive state repression of a farmers' agitation had led to several fatalities in firing and contributed to the HVP's poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

What shape Haryana's political landscape will take in the coming months will be contingent on the BJP's position at the Centre. However, Chautala's demand for the HVP-led Government's dismissal illustrates that the alliance that governs in New Delhi is fraying at the edges.

With allies making demands that are irreconcilable with each other's interests, and on occasion with those of the BJP itself, sustaining the coalition is becoming an uphill task. The question is whether the Congress(I) will succeed in becoming a plausible candidate for power and be able to attract parties such as the HLD into State-level alliances. A moribund and deeply fractious State unit of the Congress(I) has so far shown little willingness to transcend its internal problems and get down to the business of building an effective political opposition to the BJP. Events seem certain to force it to decide whether it is serious about wielding power or not.

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