With Bihar all set to slide into Lantern Raj, symbolised by Rashtriya Janata Dal's election symbol, it was celebration time at 1, Anne Marg in Patna. But there was gloom in the Congress camp.
"The decision to oppose President's rule is against our sentiments", said former PCC chief Lahtan Chaudhary. Meanwhile, even diehard critics of Laloo Yadav admitted that by turning the tables on the Centre, the RJD chief has proved that he was politically invincible. Laloo-baiter Ram Kishore Singh summed up the position: "He is the Houfini of Indian politics."
The revocation of President's rule in Bihar became inevitable after Sonia Gandhi told Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee that the Congress would not change its decision to oppose President's rule in Bihar. The brunt of the revocation will have to be borne by the 9 crore suffering people of Bihar who will have to put up not only with the return of a government that had become almost synonymous with corruption and anarchy but yet another round of administrative disruption.
People who were given new assignments after the imposition of President's rule will now stop taking decisions in anticipation of the reversal of their recent postings by the reinstated government. Worse, chaos will follow when the reversals actually take place. In addition, the new round of transfers and postings that will cost a considerable sum of money will stretch the State's already tight finances to breaking point.

Sonia Gandhi could not have been unaware of the fallout of her party's stance on the continuance of President's rule in Bihar. These, on the face of it, did not matter much to her. What did was her party's opportunistic need to undermine the show of stability which the BJP-led coalition Government at the Centre started presenting after the Lok Sabha convincingly approved the imposition of President's rule.

To start with, even the RJD will realise that the attention of the whole country has been focussed once again on its dismal failure to alleviate the sufferings of the people in the State. The failure is all the more laid bare because, notwithstanding the claims by the RJD leaders to speak on behalf of the downtrodden, it is more than clear that it is the poor, and especially the dalits, who have been suffering the most. It is not only the question of the administrative system collapsing, what is evident is that in all the years which Laloo Prasad Yadav and his wife have spent in power, the situation in the State has gone from bad to worse with little hope of redemption. Thus, for the first time in their political life, the RJD leaders will realise that there is more to governance than mere histrionics.

And what could be a better way of doing the damage by a beleaguered party than making sure that the resolution did not get through the Rajya Sabha where the BJP and its allies are in a minority? Sonia Gandhi and her party seemed to be in tearing hurry trying to score oneupmanship in Bihar.

The Congress, however, will have to weigh the pros and cons of its decision. The Bihar PCC may not like the idea of playing second fiddle to the RJD in the run-up to an election. Prior to imposing President's rule, the BJP and its allies ought to have made certain that the Congress would endorse it and the resolution approving it would have smooth sailing in both Houses of Parliament. And now they appear to be satisfied with their convincing victory in the Lok Sabha vote on the resolution approving President's rule. Facing the Rajya Sabha has been pre-empted.

Earlier there was some talk of replacing the Governor. That would have caused the Congress, already in difficulty over justifying its decision, further discomfiture. The Congress sooner than later will find that it has lost more than it has gained by its ill-planned and opportunistic stand. It will not only mean liquidation of the party's unit in Bihar but would further erode its dalit support which in turn would ensure end of its leadership's reputation for political astuteness.

"This stand has shown the Congress in its true colours. By facilitating the return of the highly corrupt and criminalised Rabri Devi regime in Bihar, which is the worst parody of governance seen in Independent India, the Congress has conclusively proved its anti-dalit character", said K.L. Sharma, MP, BJP spokesman.

Sharma said that it was Sonia Gandhi who after a high-profile visit to the site of the recent anti-dalit carnage in Bihar, had publicly stated that the Rabri Devi Government had "lost the moral right to continue in office".
He said: "The opportunistic reversal of this position by the Congress has convinced even its own rank and file in the State that the Congress leadership prefers the return of the mafia raj to moral politics."
Sharma further added that the President, the Bihar Governor, the Union Cabinet and the Lok Sabha had approved the decision and the Congress had gone against the combined wisdom of all these institutions and the interests of the people of Bihar. Besides the dent in the image, there is another serious setback for Sonia Gandhi, which however, owing to effective crisis management, has been obliterated from public view when Sonia Gandhi sought to tick off Rabri Government by saying that the RJD Government has lost its moral right to continue. But the Congress Working Committee disagreed with the strategy of its leader. It is one of those rare occasions when the Congress President proposed and the party disposed. The setback for Sonia is a serious matter highlighting the underground fissures in the party. Sonia herself does not seem to agree with the political calculation of her colleagues. At the Panchmarhi conclave the party had decided to keep away from the so-called third force and perform some magic to revive the party in UP and Bihar which together elect the larges number of MPs. But the sudden volte-face in the Bihar affair has put the party in a bind and challenged the political calculations of its leadership.

This is what BJP President Kushabhau Thakre had to say: "Dalits are being massacred everyday, but the Congress opposed the Rashtriya Janata Dal Government's dismissal just because it thought it was not politically correct to stand with the BJP on any issue."

C.R. Irani, the Statesman's Editor-in-Chief gives an analysis of Sonia's recent doing: "How can partymen forget that only the other day she pulled the rug from under Deve Gowda and approved Inder Gujral from the same party as Prime Minister; next she bundled out Gujral and precipitated a general election; soon after, she proceeded to throw Vajpayee into expectations of support for President's rule in Bihar by her comment on Rabri Devi's loss of the moral right to govern, only to turn round a hundred and eighty degrees and pave the way for Rabri's return to chief ministership. For anyone interested, the lady's actions had a purpose and a consequence. On each occasion she sought to protect herself from the Bofors disclosures. Gowda's favourite Joginder Singh, CBI Director, brought back from Switzerland documents which proved that her close friend, Ottavio Quattrocchi, received over $7 million from Bofors and then proceeded to move the money around different banks in different countries to hide the real beneficiaries... Sonia is shrewd, cool, calculating and unscrupulous."

The person who will have the last laugh is not Sonia Gandhi but Laloo Prasad Yadav who has got President's rule revoked without accepting her (Sonia's) informal suggestion to have someone other than Rabri Devi as chief minister.
Laloo Yadav may assume his hands have been strengthened. He may be inclined to think his popularity remains high and allows him to rule the roost and rule by proxy as before, making up with funny rhetoric what he has failed to deliver to the State's people. He may also interpret the Congress party's political compulsions as an indication of its (Congress') need to get on to his (Laloo's) bandwagon if it wants to be anywhere into the Bihar scheme of things. If these assumptions are not challenged by the major parties and by his allies in the Left, conditions in Bihar will continue to deteriorate. Laloo needs to be told that there is more to governing a state than state-managed "garib rallies" and clever sound-bites on television.

To the measure the BJP has cut its losses, it should be happy. Of late, the Government at the Centre has had achievements that it could strive to consolidate and leave the rest to the electorate. It is however time that the Congress politics of tactics ended and the people of Bihar are allowed to have the last laugh and show what they think of the roles that various parties have played in the farce that was made of the President's rule. This means going to the hustings. The Bihar State Assembly elections, due in March next year, should be held along with elections to some other State Assemblies in November this year. Let the people give a befitting reply.