First-ever Cabinet meeting by V.P. Singh in Meerut comes a cropper

It was the non-event of the year in India's most populous state. On December 19 in the afternoon, Meerut's stadium swarmed with more than 5,000 Congress(I) workers and two dozen MLAs gathered to welcome Chief Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh and his 20 Cabinet colleagues. The town was to see its first-ever Cabinet meeting, and the bundobust was spectacular: welcome arches, renovated guest houses with wall to wall carpeting and specially-designed chandeliers, and sumptuous six-course meals. According to a Finance Department official, over Rs 15 lakh were spent on the jamboree.But the throng waited in vain, and finally dispersed in a irate mood shouting anti-Congress(I) slogans after District Magistrate Vishwanath Anand announced that Singh and his entourage had been held up in New Delhi at an important debate on the state's Sixth Plan. Said a disgruntled Congress(I) MLA from western Uttar Pradesh: "The chief minister is always busy until late in the night, whether at New Delhi or at Lucknow. He depends solely on bureaucrats and has no time for the 340 party MLAs as long as he has the backing of one individual - Prime Minister Indira Gandhi."That about sums up the attitude of the dissidents within the ruling party. Some prominent Congress(I) leaders maintain that the Meerut meeting was postponed by Singh on the basis of reports that a Congress(I) stalwart, recently ousted from the Cabinet, was planning a massive demonstration against Singh.Singh: Unwieldy problemsAlso, there are reportedly sharp differences in the Cabinet over the question of a separate bench of the Allahabad High Court at Meerut, and this appeared to be the prime reason why the chief minister failed to turn up. But Singh is not likely to postpone his appearance for long. Parliamentary and Assembly by-elections are due in March, and he is determined to push through various development schemes worth Rs 50 crore for Meerut.Cabinet Changes: Singh cannot overlook the dissidents, but, by his bold move last month, he amply demonstrated that Mrs Gandhi still smiles on him. In a major Cabinet reshuffle and expansion, the third in less than six months, he not only dropped two of his senior Cabinet colleagues - Industry Minister Abdul Rehman Nashtar and Sugarcane Minister Yashpal Singh - but also shunted Ram Singh Khanna and Vidya Bhushan from important portfolios after having failed to get them to resign. As part of the move, the state's Publicity Department was geared to feed the press with corruption charges against the sacked ministers, although Singh had turned a blind eye to the same allegations when they were initially inducted into his Cabinet. It seems that Singh, during his meeting with the prime minister last fortnight, expressed his inability to cope with the worsening law and order situation, rising prices, scarcity of essential commodities and communal incidents unless he was given a free hand in choosing his colleagues and solid support from the party network. Mrs Gandhi, while allowing him to reshuffle his team, Singh inducted nine new ministers-warned him that if things didn't improve in the next two months he would have to face the music.To strengthen his position, Mrs Gandhi sacked the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee(I) (UPCC-I) chief Dharamveer and replaced him with a 74-year-old trade union leader Bishamber Nath Pandey, a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha with leftist leanings. Mrs Gandhi turned down the names of three relatively younger aspirants: Tarkeshwar Pandey, former MP from Ballia, K. M. Joshi, MP, and Laxmi Raman Acharya, a former law minister of the state and Sanjay's advocate in various cases launched by the Lok Dal government in Uttar Pradesh. Pandey's credentials were impeccable: he is the chairman of the Indira Gandhi Abhinandan Granth Samiti which produced a voluminous book in honour of Mrs Gandhi.Singh managed the sacking of Dharmveer on the basis of intelligence reports that when Dharamveer was home minister, the son of his public relations officer was allegedly involved in the violent demonstration against the prime minister when she visited Allahabad on November 28. Since a Brahmin has replaced a Harijan in a caste-sensitive state, the sacking may cause big controversy. Surprisingly, in the reconstituted UPCC(I), Rajinder Singh Solanki. a former Youth Congress (I) leader who was fired by Sanjay Gandhi, has been rehabilitated as one of the joint secretaries. He is now in charge of youth affairs.Worsening Situation: However while the chief minister commands the full support of the party's leadership he seems to have lost control over the administration. Says Madhav Prashad Tripathi, president of the Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party: "The state has never been so badly and casually administered." Last fortnight, curfew had to be imposed twice in Lucknow to avoid Shia-Sunni clashes, over one lakh government employees went on strike in support of their demands, the eastern half of the state shut down in protest against the death of a student in the police firing at Phulpur, and students of Lucknow University went on a rampage because of the demolition of the statue of a student leader who was murdered in 1979. Despite 118 arrests under the National Security Ordinance -out of a nation wide tally of 320-there is no respite from the worsening law and order situation. To cap it all, the state's quota of wheat was reduced by half - 70,000 tonnes a month against the required quantity of 1.4 lakh tonnes. Consequently, ration card holders were denied half their monthly ration in all towns in Uttar Pradesh. Singh can, however, claim the credit for getting the size of the state's Sixth Plan raised by over 40 per cent because of the clout he has with the Central leadership. Although his personal image is fairly clean it has not escaped tarring. It is alleged that he approved an increase in the quota of seats for the B. Tech course in Harcourt Butler Technological Institute. Kanpur. This was allegedly done to accommodate the son of a minister of state who could not be admitted on merit.Unnerved by the criticism, Singh has not only convened the Assembly session early next week but has also written to the Election Commission to order election to the five parliamentary and six assembly seats in the middle of February. He has reportedly decided to contest from Tindwari constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and claims. "I will not only contest the election but I am also sure that all my opponents will lose their deposits." Since the Opposition is hopelessly divided, his victory is certain but if the past is any indication, that will make little difference to the unwieldy problems of an unwieldy state.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 28, 2013 15:24 IST--- ENDS ---

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First-ever Cabinet meeting by V.P. Singh in Meerut comes a cropper

It was the non-event of the year in India's most populous state. On December 19 in the afternoon, Meerut's stadium swarmed with more than 5,000 Congress(I) workers and two dozen MLAs gathered to welcome Chief Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh and his 20 Cabinet colleagues.

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