From 50 Years Ago: Plastic Performer

Plastic Performer

With the statements by Charan Singh and Kamlapati Tripathi, both issued on Wednesday by coincidence, the bickering between BKD and Congress (R), the two members of the ruling coalition in UP, has been carried to a new pitch of intensity. Till now the two top leaders had left the sniping to lower party functionaries. Evidently the UP Congress (R) leadership has decided that it has little to gain from the restraint it has hitherto observed, partly under pressure from the Prime Minister, towards the Chief Minister and his party. Last month’s cabinet reshuffle which Charan Singh carried through without bothering to consult Congress (R) was a blow to the prestige of the latter, especially to that of Kamlapati Tripathi. More recently, carrying on in the same strain, the Chief Minister has taken important policy decisions, such as the promulgation of the preventive detention ordinance and the postponement of nationalisation of the sugar industry by a year, on his own. At the same time prospects of BKD merging with Congress (R) have receded farther than at any time since the formation of the coalition. In fact Charan Singh’s latest statement should make it clear that merger is not on the cards any more.