The Congress (I) treasurer, Mr. Sitaram Kesri, has spoken about Mr. AR Antulay’s antics in extremely sharp terms. Clearly he has not done it on his own behalf. He has spoken for the party’s top leadership. He has not been dealing with Maharashtra affairs as an AICC observer for quite some time. He was not scheduled to be present at the press conference which Mr. Moopanar was addressing on recent developments in the state. He came with a mandate to set the record straight and he has performed his mission with devastating effect. All of Mr. Antulay’s glibness will no longer help him and his minions to sustain the erroneous impression that he continues to enjoy Mrs. Gandhi’s confidence and overwhelming support in the Congress (I) legislature party. It is ironical that the same Mr. Kesri, who had, on his own admission, stitched up the so-called consensus in Mr. Antulay’s favour in June 1980 and thus elevated him to the powerful office of chief minister of the country’s richest state, should have delivered the coup de grace. But more pertinently, this should help the new chief minister to move out of Mr. Antulay’s shadow. He is already showing signs of doing so. We have expressed our reservations over his choice. But he deserves a chance to show his mettle. Mr. Kesri’s statement gives him that chance.
Mr. Antulay had been asking for a rebuff. Immediately after Mr. Justice Lentin delivered his damning indictment of him on January 12, Mr. Antulay sought to put the onus of further action on Mrs. Gandhi by saying that his resignation was already pending with her. He did not give up this effort to embarrass her even when, under instruction from New Delhi, he went to Raj Bhavan to submit his resignation to the Governor that night. He wrote in the letter that he was submitting his resignation because the one with Mrs. Gandhi might take time to reach Bombay. And as he was meeting the Governor, his followers had gathered to demonstrate that he still commanded majority support in the legislature party and to demand that he must be allowed to continue as chief minister. By arguing that Mrs. Gandhi herself had not resigned following an adverse court judgment in 1975, they equated him with her. Even after his resignation had been accepted, he continued to behave as if nothing had changed. He summoned ministers and secretaries to his office at his residence. Shockingly enough they duly appeared there with files, ready to take orders and implement them. When the new chief minister was sworn in on January 20, Mr. Antulay’s minions made sure that his supporters were present in sufficiently large numbers to shout “Antulay Zindabad” as if the event was a great victory for him. Much of this can now be ignored. But the people of Maharashtra would like to know what non-routine and substantive decisions were taken or sought to be taken by Mr. Antulay as caretaker chief minister. They would also want an early decision depriving him of control over the trusts which he has established on the strength of the money he has extorted. Mr. Antulay possesses enormous resilience. He has bounced back in the past and he can be depended upon to try to do so in future. The Congress (I) leadership will have only itself to blame if it is taken by surprise once again.