Reddy bid to defuse crisis

Press, 22 August 1979, Page 9

Reddy bid to defuse crisis

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi The Indian President (Mr Sanjiva Reddy) will today try to diffuse the Indian political crisis by deciding whether to order a fresh General Election or invite the Opposition to form a new Government. President Reddy, without any constitutional precedent to guide him, will have to accept or reject the advice given by the outgoing Prime Minister (Mr Charan Singh) to dissolve Parliament so that a mid-term poll could be held within six months.

Mr Singh resigned on Monday after only 24 days in office—the briefest term by any Indian Prime Minister—rather than submit to a confidence vote in Parliament he was certain to lose because of a decision by the former Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi, to direct her Congress (I.) Party not to support him. Mr Singh, who is 76, had two meetings with President Reddy to urge him to accept his Cabinet’s recommendation to dissolve Parliament.

“The grounds which led the council of Ministers to advise dissolution are not open to any scrutiny by the President,” Mr Singh said in a memorandum to Mr Reddy.

The Prime Minister, determined to prevent the Opposition Janata Party’s leader,

Mr Jagjivan Ram, from succeeding him, told reporters: “The President is bound by the Cabinet’s advice.” He was backed by Leftist parties, with a total of 42 members of Parliament, who said fresh elections were the only way of resolving the political crisis. Mr Ram, leader of the country’s 100 M harijans (untouchables) has also met President Reddy to stake his claim to form the next Government, saying he had the support of 239 M.P.s in the 544-seat Lower House. He said later that the President had no “right” to accept advice from a Prime Minister who had resigned before facing a confidence motion in Parliament. Mr Ram said he would provide a “viable and stable” Government.

President Reddy has so far not given a clue to his thinking, but political commentators have said he would prefer fresh elections, in the hope of avoiding continued political instability in a country that has seen two Governments fall in just over a month.

Mr Ram’s Janata Party is the largest in Parliament, but its majority depends on defections from other parties or Mrs Gandhi’s 80 members.