It was indeed embarrassing for the Union Government, particularly for senior leaders from the State, namely Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and Railway Minister Nitish Kumar, to revoke the proclamation imposing Central rule in Bihar, but it is the Congress that will have to pay a heavy political price for its ignominious role in the sordid drama. The Congress will have to bear the cross for the misdeeds of the RJD Government even if it were to vote against the Government in the State Assembly on the confidence motion. The Prime Minister did all he could to persuade the Congress not to vote against the proclamation in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling alliance is in a hopeless minority. His last ditch effort to seek Congress support for the parliamentary approval of the presidential proclamation by inviting Sonia Gandhi and the Leader of Opposition in the upper house for talks with him and the Union Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani was a master stroke. Sonia Gandhi's inexperience and lack of political acumen were exposed when she responded to the invitation but would not listen to Atal Behari Vajpayee's impassioned plea for a consensus on the subject. The message is loud and clear. The Prime Minister did not stand on prestige to salvage Bihar but Sonia chose to embarrass the Government even if it meant another agonising spell of misrule and misery for the people of Bihar, particularly the dalits. The Congress, and Congress alone, is responsible for bringing back to power the corrupt and criminal Government of Rabri Devi only to cause embarrassment to the BJP-led Government. That explains why Congressmen in Bihar are uncomfortable with the high command's decision. Some of them have openly stated that the Congress had lost whatever mass base it had in the State. A number of them have sought Congress President's permission to vote against the Rabri Devi Government on the confidence motion in the hope of undoing some of the damage caused to the party by the high command's misadventure. This too may misfire. Mere posturing cannot fool masses.

The people of Bihar are fed up with the decadent, totally inefficient and corrupt RJD Government and will not forgive Sonia Gandhi and her party for bringing back to power the party which had ruined the State's economy, sharpened the caste conflicts and plunged the State into a deadly caste war in which no one felt safe. Sonia Gandhi removed the Congress Chief Minister of Orissa following the burning alive of a foreign missionary and his innocent children in the State. But she had no qualms of conscience to pave the way for return to power of Rabri Devi during whose tenure there were a spate of massacres of innocent and defenceless dalits. The question being asked in political circles is why these double standards. Are the lives of the poor and illiterate dalits less important than that of her co-religionists? Is Sonia Gandhi more worried about her image in Christian countries than the fate of millions of Biharis? The negative impact of Sonia Gandi's miscalculation in Bihar will not be restricted only to that State. Congress party's fortunes in the entire Hindi belt, particularly in UP, are likely to be affected. Congress leaders of Hindi States openly admit that they stand to lose a lot because of the blunder committed by the Congress chief. Scheduled Castes, at least a section among them, were returning to the Congress fold after the virtual collapse of the third front. Now, there is re-thinking among the community. The biggest gainer will be the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which openly supported the sack of the Rabri Devi Government in the wake of the massacre of Harijans and voted for the proclamation in the Lok Sabha.

The third front, which virtually collapsed after the 1998 Lok Sabha poll, is also a gainer. CPM and other leftist parties are making efforts to revive the front. It was the CPM that had thrown Laloo's party out of the National Front. Now, it is the same party that is welcoming RJD back in the front and beseeching the Congress to lead the front to unseat the BJP-led coalition. There is nothing surprising in these postures. Communsits are known to have flexible principles and morals.

If ever there was justification for the invocation of Article 356 to dismiss a State Government, it was in Bihar where there was total collapse of the constitutional machinery. Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari sent several reports to the Centre in which he detailed chaotic conditions prevailing in the State. President K.R. Narayanan did not merely affix his signatures on the proclamation, he recorded his considered opinion that the latest report from the Governor showed that it was a fit case for Central intervention. Sonia Gandhi too shed tears over the massacre of a large number of dalits in Jehanabad district. She publicly declared that Rabri Devi had lost the moral right to continue in office because of her failure to prevent series of massacres of dalits by a gang of outlaws called Ranvir Sena. Her statement was presumably taken too seriously by the Central Government. The ruling coalition knew it had no majority in the Rajya Sabha whose nod was necessary for the imposition of President's rule. It obviously took the Congress support for granted. BJP should have known better. Congress is not known for straight talk and commitment to morality. The only principle Congressmen follow is to grab power by hook or by crook.

By invoking Article 356, the BJP sent the right signals to the masses and its cadres. It has also silenced its critics within the alliance that the leadership was not acting against recalcitrant State Governments. It can now resist pressures to dismiss State Governments on the premise that if it could not be done in Bihar, it would not be possible to impose Central rule anywhere till the ruling alliance had a majority in both the Houses.

What is a little surprising is why the Prime Minister chose to revoke the proclamation instead of taking it to the Rajya Sabha. True, it would have been defeated in the upper house but it would have further exposed the Congress party and deprived the Opposition of the opportunity to accuse the ruling coalition of ignoring the upper house. Nothing would have been lost in unsuccessfully seeking Rajya Sabha's approval. That would have been the most logical and honest route for the Government to follow. BJP has lost an opportunity to put the Congress on the mat. The argument that the defeat of the motion in the upper house would have been an embarrassment does not hold water. The Government had convincingly proved its majority in the Lok Sabha where it matters. Revoking a proclamation after all, is equally, if not more, embarrassing.

Even while the Congress, the Communists and the two Yadavs played their petty games and celebrated their 'victory' of restoration of Rabri Devi Government, no one had any thought for the people of Bihar who had suffered and suffered long under RJD's misrule. The best course would have been fresh elections to give the people an opportunity to have a Government of their choice. The Congress party's claim that it took a principled stand is bullshit. It is the party which misused Article 356 about 100 times. In December 1992, the Congress Government dismissed BJP Governments in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for no reason or rhyme. There was not even a law and order problem in these States. The only reason was that P.V. Narasimha Rao was under pressure from the 'secular' gang to attack the BJP to prove its credentials as a secular party after it created a situation in which the disputed structure in Ayodhya was pulled down by angry karsevaks.

Why did the Congress decline to support the Presidential proclamation? One explanation being offered by Congressmen, who ought to know, is that Sonia Gandhi was wrongly advised by her advisers to take contradictory stands immediately after the massacre and after the imposition of Central rule. Another view in the main Opposition party is that it was a calculated move to give a false impression to the BJP-led Government that the Congress might support the proclamation. This section is gloating over the fact that the party succeeded in trapping BJP into a no-win situation.

A more plausible explanation appears to be that the Congress got nervous because of the popularly held perception that the Government headed by Vajpayee had stabilised and that his bus diplomacy had proved beyond a shadow of doubt that he was no war-monger. Vajpayee's initiative to improve relations with all neighbbours, including Pakistan and China, lent credence to his oft-repeated stand that Pokaran was not to wage wars but to prevent them and was a calculated move to ensure national security before launching a peace offensive. Sonia Gandhi's advisers calculated that the Government might be defeated even in the Lok Sabha because of the known stand of regional parties against Article 356. That would have been a moral defeat for the Government and Vajpayee might have quit on moral grounds. The Congress game plan misfired because the BJP and its allies were able to hold together and register a resounding victory in the lower house. One mistake led to another blunder. Congress will pay heavy political price for its misadventure but the worst sufferers are the hapless people of Bihar who have been denied an opportunity to have a government of their choice through a free and fair election. They will have to go through another year of misery and misrule.