The text of President Sanjiva Reddy’s broadcast last Monday leaves little room for doubt that he has spoken on his own initiative and not on behalf of the government. For he has said that he (and not the government) is determined that no problem “will be allowed to stand in the way of holding a fair and free poll”. He has of course, also said that since the dissolution of the Lok Sabha last August, “my government … have been engaged in preparations for holding a country-wide poll to the Lok Sabha”. But this cannot negate the importance of the subsequent use of the first person singular. The circumstances in which the President has made the broadcast support this inference. Despite a snub by Mr. Charan Singh to Mr. Raj Narain on the latter’s demand that the election be postponed till next February on account of the widespread drought and a categorical assurance by him that the poll will be completed latest by the first week of next January, rumours have persisted that it will be put off on one pretext or the other. Indeed, leaders of several opposition parties have not only given expression to this fear in their public speeches but have approached the President to request him to ensure that this does not happen. As such, it is only reasonable to infer that Mr. Reddy has felt obliged to make the broadcast and thereby try to set at rest all speculation in respect of the timing of the election. The matter will have been finally clinched when the chief election commissioner announces in a few days, as the President has said he will, the poll schedule.
Ideally it should not have been necessary for the President to reassure the nation that the election will not be postponed. The Prime Minister’s statement should have sufficed to set all misgivings at rest. The apprehension in fact might not have arisen if Mr. Raj Narain had not made the demand. But since the fear had in fact spread, it is as well that Mr. Reddy has acted in the manner he has. He has in the process not done anything to undermine the prestige of the office of prime minister. As such Mr Charan Singh has no good reason to take umbrage at the President’s action. Indeed, he should appreciate that Mr. Reddy did not have much choice in the matter. Perhaps he does.
The Times of India, 24 October 1979