The Revolving Door at Prime Minister’s Office-1996

It was another May summer like the one we are passing through now. The seasonal heat was getting eclipsed by the political heat generated by the 1996 elections to Parliament (Lok sabha) that was getting over. It was generally speculated that the poll would produce a hung Lok Sabha, meaning that no political party would get a decisive majority in the house. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, who was campaigning to get re-elected, had wryly observed that every political leader and party was vying to get elected only to sit in the opposition, and not to provide a stable, responsible government.

Rao was not in the least assured by the assessment of his sycophants and the government’s Intelligence bureau that he would romp home with 200+ Lok Sabha seats. His own Congress party was a divided house and opposition parties were also splintering. In early May, I was in Bangalore and called on the then Karnataka Chief Minister, Deve Gowda. During our conversation mostly centered on the poll and the fate of the government of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, the chief minister was emphatic that he would camp in Delhi from May 11th for garnering support for Rao in forming the new central government. His own Janata Dal had emerged as political force in Karnataka and Bihar, where Lalu Prasad Yadav was a leading Dal leader.

The election results however, did not favour Rao’s Indian National Congress party. In fact, his party got less than 150 Lok Sabha seats and as the party president, Rao made the important political declaration that his party would extend outside support to any coalition government formed by non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secular combine. A splinter group of parties claiming to be secular led by Janata Dal, championed by the redoubtable chief minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, had begun the coalition parleys with left and other non-BJP parties in Bihar Bhavan in New Delhi.

According to media reports, more than one political leader from different parties had staked claim to the Prime Minister’s post. While consensus was emerging around the name of the Communist party (Marxist) leader and chief minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, his own party decided not to be part of the government. It is interesting to recall that the Indian democracy had already had seen an elected communist party leader as the chief minister of Kerala state way back in 1957 in the person of Namboodaripad. And Jyoti Basu had set a record of sorts as the longest serving chief minister of a state. But the Marxist party, by turning its back on the prime minister’s post available to it on a platter, lost perhaps a unique and historic opportunity of capturing the national power citadel.

What was very interesting at this stage of political developments was that Devegowda was totally outside the reckoning among the candidates for the top slot. The newspapers photograph records show that on the 13th of May 1996 when leaders of various political parties were huddled in a room in Bihar Bhavan and searching for an acceptable person to head the coalition, Devegowda was occupying a seat almost near the door of this room. Due to a quirk of fate, by the evening of next day his name emerged as the most acceptable one for the Prime Ministership and he came to occupy the central seat.

Prime Minister Narasimha Rao had asked me, in my capacity as his spokesman, to keep ready a draft statement to be issued by the Congress party (extending its support) soon after the coalition of parties selected a person to lead the coalition. On his instructions I had also prepared a draft resolution on the lines of the earlier statement to be adopted by the party working committee scheduled to meet on 15th of May. Even while the working committee meeting in the morning was in progress, Rao had sought an appointment with the president of India. The party’s plan was to formally present the working committee resolution to the president, declaring unconditional support to the non-BJP secular combine that would be staking claim to form the government. The working committee concluded its meeting a little before lunch and Prime Minister rang me up informing me that the party General secretary V.Narayanaswamy would call on the president at 4.30 pm, as instructed by the Rastrapati Bhavan ( president’s house).

When I told him that the President had already invited the leader of the BJP Atal Bihari Vajpayee to meet him before lunch, Rao was totally taken aback because his own request for an appointment with the President had been received and the meeting was scheduled to take place in the evening. There is no doubt that the President of India can meet anyone at his will, but the circumstances under which an outgoing PM’s appointment request, that too one belonging to the President’s own political party, got lower precedence than the one coming from the opposition, was somewhat unusual and intriguing. Also Rao had apprised the President of the party’s likely stand soon after the election results were announced, while tendering his own and the government’s resignation.

In the meanwhile, the news agencies broadcast the story that the BJP leader was already at the President’s house and likely to be invited to form the government. On learning about this piece of news, a very upset Devegowda told the media assembled at Karnataka Bhavan that the Congress had back-stabbed him. I got in touch with the PM and informed him of the blast from Devegowda. The reaction that came was typical of Rao, “He is entitled to think so; please inform him on my behalf that BJP government would be a eight day wonder and he will have his rare chance soon, if he stops from making statements to the media”. He also instructed me to hunt for the party General Secretary Narayanaswamy, authorized to carry the party resolution to the president. My enquiries revealed that the party emissary, giving precedence to his midday meal, had gone somewhere, unaware of the urgency attached to his political mission and the brewing crisis for his party. Mobile phones were not widely in use then and he could not be traced.

In the meanwhile, I rushed to Karnataka Bhavan to meet the Prime Ministerial aspirant Devegowda to explain the unexpected developments and Prime Minister Rao’s sage words. I found him less hopeful of realizing his dream of becoming the Prime Minister than the outgoing PM. Events later proved that the latter was right. After 13 days in office, unable to attract any political allies to support it, the all-BJP cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee bowed out of office. Around the 50th year of Independence, India saw five persons moving in and out of Prime Minister’s office (between May 1996 and May 1998).

The 2009 elections were predicted by many political pundits to produce an outcome similar to the one in 1996.We must thank the Indian voter for proving wrong such predictions. If they had come true, the revolving door would have reappeared at PMO.