M A I N   N E W S

Review railway issue, Advani told
Vajpayee’s bid to arrest cracks in NDA 
T.R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 12
Despite a seemingly intractable situation about reviewing the bifurcation of Eastern Railway, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has urged Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to look into the controversy afresh to arrest serious cracks developing in the disparate NDA grouping.

Clearly, Mr Vajpayee is keen on finding an amicable way out and ensuring the entry of recalcitrant Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in his Cabinet despite the reservations of his senior colleagues.

The Prime Minister’s concern of a deep cleavage developing in the ranks of the NDA also stems from the fact that the Centre’s hands are tied in making any meaningful intervention in the case of MDMK leader Vaiko, who has been jailed by J Jayalalitha’s AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu under the provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). An ally of the NDA, Mr Vaiko is a staunch supporter of Mr Vajpayee.

All attempts at accommodating Ms Banerjee had virtually been given up two days back with Union Railway Minister Nitish Kumar maintaining that there could be no going back on the reorganisation of the railway zones as it was a Cabinet decision.

Mr Advani and Union Defence Minister George Fernandes, who is also the convener of the NDA, had expressed similar sentiments, thereby virtually shutting the door on Ms Banerjee and her constituents. Consequently, the meeting with Mr Vajpayee scheduled to be held yesterday to discuss the demand of Ms Banerjee to put the bifurcation of Eastern Railway on hold was cancelled as it would have been an exercise in futility.

After returning from an official tour to Japan, Mr Fernandes rushed to his constituency in Bihar last evening and is now expected to return tomorrow.

Given Mr Vajpayee’s keenness to consolidate the NDA, he has assiduously refrained from meeting the all-party delegation from Bengal or Bihar for fear of sending wrong signals. He has remained on the sidelines and impressed upon his troubleshooters in Mr Advani and Mr Fernandes to find a way out of the impasse.

A fresh ray of hope on the Trinamool Congress front has arisen with Mr Advani stating in Agra today that efforts would be made afresh to thrash out the issue connected with the reorgnisation of the zones in the Railways. The Deputy Prime Minister hinted at a possible meeting with Mr Vajpayee on the eve of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on Sunday.

There is consternation in the Vajpayee government that the bifurcation of Eastern Railway can turn into an ugly Bihar-West Bengal confrontation in Parliament, with the allies of the NDA being in the forefront.

Mr Vajpayee is keen on avoiding such a situation which can be highly embarrassing, besides stoking other dormant fires in the NDA combination especially when crucial Assembly elections in the Hindi heartland are due next year, not to speak of those in Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat in another four months.

As far as Mr Vaiko is concerned, the Union Government is yet to examine the contents of his June 29 speech as the video-cassette of his speech in Tamil is yet to be transcribed and analysed. In any case, it is widely believed in the BJP camp that Mr Vaiko has compounded matters for himself by repeatedly harping on his support to the banned LTTE in the neighbouring Sri Lanka.

Going by the present indications in the corridors of power, Mr Vaiko might have to fend for himself and await the court’s interpretation of the provisions of POTA.

On his part, the MDMK leader has emphasised that he does not want to put the central leadership in a jam and is determined to fight in the court what he describes as the fascist regime of Ms Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu.