New Delhi: While then-Congress MP Giridhar Gamang and National Conference Saifuddin Soz were seen as the main culprits by BJP sympathizers for the defeat of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in Lok Sabha in 1999 by just one vote, it was the “failure from the management “of the party saffron small parties that played a larger role, says a new book.
‘Vajpayee: The Years That Changed India’
The book, titled ‘Vajpayee: The Years That Changed India’ and written by Shakti Sinha, who served as a former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ‘s private secretary for many years, including at the PMO, provides a detailed account of the workings of the first BJP-led government and how it fell into command in just 13 months after AIADMK’s fickle supreme J Jayalalithaa withdrew support from your party.
Gamang wrongly got angry for taking down AB VajpayeeSinha writes and states that he saw “a greater role in the failure of the BJP to manage small parties and in the tendency of regional parties to become private family businesses.” “
Citing examples, Sinha writes that Arunachal Congressman Wangcha Rajkumar had assured AB Vajpayee months before the floor test at Lok Sabha that his support for him would continue after a split in the regional party.
“At that time, there was no immediate threat to the Vajpayee government. Unfortunately, when the time came, no one remembered to approach Rajkumar, and he voted against the government, being a former congressman. I don’t think the leaders of BJP floor were aware of its existence, “the book says.
Sinha suggests that a better deal from Soz, whose party at the time, the National Conference, had two deputies, might have elicited a more positive response from him. He then Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Farooq Abdullah, also head of the NC, harshly pressured his son Omar Abdullah, another deputy from his party, and “marked Soz in an extremely petty way.”
The BJP’s failure to manage small parties toppled the Vajpayee government in 1999
According to the book, Soz had suggested the name of a certain person for the official Indian delegation to the Haj, but Farooq Abdullah removed it. When AB Vajpayee Visiting Srinagar on December 6, 1998, he was supposed to meet with local government ministers, Sinha notes, adding that since they were a bit late, Abdullah dismissed the meeting in an “extremely arrogant” way.
“Vajpayee paid the price. While Omar Abdullah voted in favor of the confidence motion, Soz voted against it,” he says. The third case, that of Janata Dal, was the most intriguing, he writes, noting that former Prime Minister IK Gujral could be elected to Lok Sabha only by the Akalis, but he voted to overthrow the government, of which the Akalis were a part. .
Another Janata Dal leader, Ram Vilas Paswan, did not want his party to vote with Lalu Yadav, whose party was then in power in Bihar, and participate in the fall of the government, but the party persuaded him to be patient, Sinha writes .
Paswan soon parted ways with Janata Dal and would join the BJP, becoming a minister in the AB Vajpayee government that came to power after the 1999 general elections, because no other party or alliance was able to achieve a majority after the NDA administration lost the vote of confidence.
Gamang’s vote had created a major dispute at the time because he had taken over as Odisha’s chief minister. However, he had not yet given up on Lok Sabha. “The fact that he had assumed full-time political office in a state whose legislature he would have to be a member of, he was expected not to participate in a critical vote in Parliament,” says the author.
The Speaker was asked to rule and the matter was left to Gamang’s conscience. “His conscience told him to follow the orders of his party, so he voted against the confidence motion,” Sinha notes, adding that, ironically, Gamang is now a member of the BJP.
Soz had also moved to the Congress party later. While Supreme BSP Kanshi Ram assured Atal Bihari Vajpayee that his party, which had five deputies, would not vote against him, he cast the lot to the opposition on voting day, overthrowing the government.
Sinha also questions then-President KR Narayanan’s decision to ask Vajpayee to seek a vote of confidence after Jayalalithaa withdrew his support as Parliament was due to resume its budget session the following day.
“This, I felt then and continue to feel, was absolutely inappropriate. With Parliament in session, the correct way to overthrow a government would be to file a vote of no confidence or, since it was the budget session, defeat the government on any money bills owed. in session, “he writes.
His “myopia” in asking Vajpayee to seek a vote of confidence became apparent two days after the fall of the government when Narayanan asked Vajpayee, just an interim prime minister, to get the budget (not just the vote on account). and the railroad. budget approved by Parliament, adds Sinha.
“This was parliamentary malpractice and Vajpayee resisted, but the nationalist in him overruled the politician, and agreed that Parliament could meet and pass the necessary legislation, which he did, without discussion, as agreed by the leaders of the important parties, “he added. Sinha writes.
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