It is not easy to interpret Charan Singh’s recent moves. His latest statement to the press whereby he has suggested that the Janata’s constituents should return to their old status as separate parties makes the task even more difficult. Indeed, it is possible that he himself is groping for a way out of the unenviable position in which he and his supporters find themselves since his own and Mr. Raj Narain’s exits from the Union government and the failure of the mediatory efforts intended either to secure his return to the Cabinet or to make him president of the party. Logically, three options are open to him. He can accept the status quo for the time being in the hope that other Janata leaders will in course of time wear down Mr. Morarji Desai’s resistance to his terms, or quit the Janata with his band of faithful followers and revive the BLD under the old name or a new name, or wage a war of nerves on Mr. Desai so that the latter is either compelled to accept his terms for a compromise or finds himself in so uncomfortable a position that he has little choice but to step down.
None of these options is easy to exercise, the first and the third because there can be no guarantee of success in view of the toughness the Prime Minister has demonstrated in recent months and the second because it is bound to strengthen the already widespread view that the Janata is about to disintegrate and that Mrs. Gandhi’s return to office is unavoidable Mr. C.B. Gupta, treasurer of the Janata party and a lifetime opponent of Mr. Charan Singh, has said that the latter will one day make common cause with Mrs. Gandhi. This is sheer propaganda intended to malign him and should, therefore, be dismissed as a basis for a serious discussion. For while nothing is impossible in politics as in life, Mr. Charan Singh will risk losing his credibility if he makes a deal, even a covert one, with the former Prime minister. And what evidence is there to show that she is prepared for such a deal? On the contrary, the composition of her present support base is such as to preclude the possibility. The Harijans and the Muslims will not be enthusiastic about her if she comes to terms with a leader who thinks essentially in terms of a countrywide alliance of peasant castes and the promotion of their interests.
But the absence of an obvious choice does not necessarily means that he will remain immobilized, as he has been till recently from June 29 when he resigned from the cabinet. He must do something in order to survive and he is determined to survive. Thus if a return to the government is ruled out, which is what he has said quite categorically, and if he finds a decision to quit the Janata too risky in view of the revival of Mrs. Gandhi’s fortunes and the fact that it is virtually impossible to organize a country-wide alliance of peasant castes, the only choice left to him is to carry on a war of attrition against the Prime Minister. And even if he is convinced, which he is not, that it is not likely to succeed soon, there is no reason why he cannot resort to it. In fact, this option can begin to look fairly attractive to him if the pro-changers in the Janata continue their efforts for a change of leadership at the top, a euphemism for a new Prime Minister who they think can lead the Janata to victory at the next poll.