If there is one decision by Mr. Charan Singh in recent years which even those who do not normally support him can cheerfully endorse, it is the expulsion of Mr. Raj Narain from the Lok Dal. Indeed, Mr. Charan Singh is open to the criticism that he suffered Mr. Raj Narain much too long for his own and his party’s good. This is not to suggest that the former has not been beholden to the latter. He has been. But for Mr. Raj Narain’s exertion in splitting the Janata last July and arranging a short-lived deal with the Congress (I) through Mr. Sanjay Gandhi, Mr. Charan Singh could never have fulfilled his life-long ambition to become the country’s prime minister. It is also indisputable that Mr. Raj Narain was useful to Mr. Charan Singh in the struggle against Mr. Morarji Desai and that if it was not for this consideration the latter would have ended his partnership with the former a long time ago. But Mr. Raj Narain has been a liability to Mr. Charan Singh all along. By making a fool of himself as health minister in the Desai government, he exposed his friends and supporters to ridicule. By fanning Mr. Charan Singh’s ambitions and suspicions, first regarding Mr. Desai and then regarding the erstwhile Jana Sangh, he ensured that the Janata leadership would never settle down to the task of governing the country and that it would finally split. This might have suited Mr. Charan Singh then. But in retrospect he must see things differently. After all, it would have been preferable from his own limited point of view to have served a full term as a senior minister than to be prime minister for a few months and then suffer a humiliating setback at the polls.
In the past Mr. Raj Narain often described himself as ‘Hanuman’ to Mr. Charan Singh’s ‘Rama’. This was a thoroughly inept description. The self-styled ‘Hanuman’ had poured ridicule on the newly discovered ‘Rama’. He had made common cause with the late Mr. C.B. Gupta and called Mr. Charan Singh Mr. Chair Singh, implying that the latter was obsessed by the lust for office. There was no common ground between the two either in ideological or caste terms. While Mr. Raj Narain was a fervent socialist and follower of the late Dr. Rammanohar Lohia, Mr. Charan Singh believed in private property and private enterprise. And the former is a Bhumihar, an upper caste which has not figured in the caste alliance which the latter has been trying to forge and lead all these years. Above all, Mr. Raj Narain is not a man without vanity and ambition. This became fully evident soon after the Janata split and Mr. Charan Singh’s appointment as prime minister. He tried to cast himself in the role which Gandhiji had played in the Congress during the freedom struggle. In plain terms, he tried to ensure that Mr. Charan Singh would be no more than his front man behind whom he would wield real power. He came a cropper in the last election to the Lok Sabha. But this did not end his ambition to be able to manipulate Mr. Charan Singh and the Lok Dal. The clash was unavoidable and so was the result.