Janata chiefs try to force Desai out as coalition falls apart

Press, 16 July 1979, Page 8

Janata chiefs try to force Desai out as coalition falls apart

NZPA-Reuter

New Delhi

The leaders of India's ruling Janata Party’ have called a meeting to decide the future of the Prime Minister (Mr Morarji Desai), who is under severe pressure to resign to save his minority 7 Government from a Parliamentary 7 defeat next week.

The dramatic move to force Mr Desai to quit came from the Socialist faction led by the Industry Minister (Mr George Fernandes) who last Friday defended the Government in a no-confidence debate in Parliament.

Mr Desai On Saturday rejected a resignation demand made by Mr Fernandes at a meeting of seven Janata Party leaders.

Some 80 members of Parliament, three Cabinet Ministers, and eight junior Ministers have resigned from the Government as the fragile governing coalition has fallen apart in the last two weeks. More resignations, including that of the powerful Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Charan Singh), are expected before the vote on the noconfidence motion in the Lower House of Parliament today or tomorrow.

Mr Fernandes said he would renew his demand more forcefully at an emergency meeting of the party’s top executive body, the Parliamentary board, before the no-confidence vote. The Socialists hope that Mr Desai’s resignation will salvage the Janata Partv and resolve the partv crisis. The no-confidence motion was tabled on the grounds

that Mr Desai’s Government had failed on the political and economic fronts and was to blame for Hindu-Muslim riots in which 146 people have died so far. The Communist Party of India, which has 22 members in the Lok Sabha (Lower House), and other Leftist parties are expected to rally behind the Opposition. Mr Desai will be relying heavily on the Hindu nationalist Jan Sangh faction and his own Congress group.

The Janata coalition, which needs 270 votes in the 538member Low>er House to survive the no-confidence vote, now has only 233 members there. The 83-year-old Prime Minister has said he is confident he will win the vote. The defections from the Janata Party, the alliance of five factions formed *o defeat Mrs Indira Gandhi two | years ago. stem from rifts ' involving politics, economic i policy, allegations of corrupjtion. and the links of one ’Cabinet group with the j Hindu revivalist organisation, ' the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Three members of the Cabinet belong to the Jan i Sangh, the political offshoot I of the R.S.S. The R.S.S. has ibeen blamed for the Hindu-

Muslim riots and encouraging communal hatred. President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy has already consulted several political leaders in what could be the prelude to the formation of a new government.

Observers think that most top Janata leaders were backing the second Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister (Mr Jagjivan Ram) as a successor to Mr Desai.

Mr Ram, the undisputed leader of India’s 100 millionstrong Harijan caste (Untouchables), met Mr Desai yesterdav for over an hour. iThe outcome of their talks I was not immediately known.