Apparently, the critics of the U.P. chief minister, Mr. Ram Naresh Yadav, in the state Janata legislature partyhave once again become active. Reports from Lucknow suggest that this time his patron, Mr. Charan Singh, too, may not be averse to a change. Though it is difficult to be sure about such things because attitudes change from one day to another, it is evident that the former Union home minister and BLD leader has no good reason to be particularly happy with Mr. Yadav on the count of either loyalty or efficiency. For the U.P. chief minister has been ostentatiously neutral in Mr. Charan Singh’s conflict with Mr. Morarji Desai in New Delhi and he has not been able to make any worthwhile impact on the slate administration. It can be said in Mr. Yadav’s favour that, since independence, U.P. has never figured among India’s well-managed states, that it is perhaps too big and populous to be run effectively from Lucknow and that its political culture is such as to make it difficult for anyone to give it the kind of efficient administration it needs if it is to catch up with other parts of the country in respect of economic and social development. But his detractors are not likely to be influenced by these “abstract” considerations. Thus the key issues are whether Mr. Yadav has won some other powerful supporter(s) at the centre andwhether the dissidents are in a position to command a clear majority in the Janata legislature party. It is obviously too early find an answer to either question and to assess the level of his own independent support, independent that is, of Mr. Charan Singh.
It is hardly necessary to make the point that Mr. S.P. Malaviya who appears to have taken the
initiative for seeking the removal of Mr. Yadav as chief minister is justified in doing so. For Mr. Yadav had dismissed him from the cabinet in a most clumsy and high-handed manner. Not only did Mr. Yadav not ask him for his resignation (if he wanted Mr. Malaviya out of his government for whatever reason), but the chief minister did not even show him the courtesy of informing him in advance that he had decided to drop Mr. Malaviya. Even so, Mr. Malaviya and those who support him owe it to the state, their party and themselves not to make the change primarily out of personal considerations, to do so without creating too much confusion and to select as the next leader a man who has shown some promise. U.P. has tried one dark horse; it should be spared another. Moreover, though it will be too much to ask for the next chief minister to be selected in utter disregard of the group factor, this should not be allowed to be the dominant one. Mercifully, there is at least some indication that there is no move to isolate any particular group in the Janata. The party is still at best a loose federation. But its constituents need not be at war with one another all the time.