While it is a reasonably safe bet that Mrs Gandhi called on President Zail Singh on Wednesday to acquaint him with her assessment of the political situation in Andhra, we are in no position to say what transpired at the meeting. But a couple of points can be made with a measure of certainty. It would, for example, be extraordinary if after Mr Rama Rao had brought MLAs supporting him to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday, the President was not fully convinced that the dismissed chief minister in fact continued to enjoy a comfortable majority in the state assembly. Giani Zail Singh did not, it is true, engage in a head count of the assembled MLAs. Nor did he check the identity cards they had brought with them. But it was hardly necessary for him to do either. The facts must have been as obvious to him as they were to the whole country. Similarly, it would be altogether surprising if the President did not convey to the Prime Minister his concern over the governor’s actions in Hyderabad. In the very act of agreeing to meet Mr Rama Rao and his supporters, he had committed himself to doing so by implication, though not by explicit statement. Thus what we do not but need to know is what Mrs Gandhi told Giani Zail Singh.
In the absence of this information, it is possible to take the view that the Congress leadership has decided to ride out the storm in Andhra. Like many others, we too have been inclined to so interpret the Prime Minister’s and her home minister’s statements in Parliament on Tuesday. That her statement in the two houses regarding an early session of the state assembly was not followed by an appropriate announcement of the date in Hyderabad inevitably strengthened this view. Nothing has happened since, at least to the knowledge of the people of India, which would suggest that Mrs Gandhi has decided to take steps to repair the enormous damage that Mr Ram Lal has inflicted on her own reputation and her party’s fortunes, not to speak of the ignominy he has brought to the office of governor. But meanwhile certain developments have taken place which should shake her out of the belief, if she nurses such a belief, that she can still “manage things” in Andhra.
Thirty-five Andhra MLAs whose names allegedly appear in Mr Bhaskara Rao’s list of his supporters were in New Delhi on Tuesday when the chief minister is supposed to have presented them to the governor. On Wednesday they threatened to sue him on the charge of “defaming” them by claiming that they had crossed over to his side. While any number of newspapers have published the collective photograph of these MLAs, Mr Bhaskara Rao has not provided any evidence to the public in support of his claim. This must make it difficult even for Congressmen to give the benefit of the doubt to Mr Bhaskara Rao. This might not have clinched the issue of who “commands” the majority in the Andhra assembly in different circumstances, but we feel that it might well do so in the present circumstances.
The rally in New Delhi on Wednesday illustrates what we are talking about. On all accounts, it was the biggest rally in the Capital since the one Mr Jayaprakash Narayan addressed in early 1977 to launch the Janata and the election campaign against Mrs Gandhi. It was also the most emotion-charged public meeting in the Capital since 1977. And once again, the entire opposition had come together on the same issue of safeguarding democracy against the supposed threat allegedly posed to it by Mrs Gandhi. Delhi is not India. So it would not be right to say that the rally represented the feelings of the whole country. But it appears no other issue since the emergency has stirred the Indian people as the wholly illegal and unjustifiable dismissal of the NTR ministry has done. The support for the opposition demonstration in Bombay underscores the point. More pertinent in the immediate context is the manner in which the people all over Andhra have risen in support of Mr Rama Rao. To put the issue frankly, this aroused public opinion would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Mr Bhaskara Rao either to win over MLAs with promises of office and money or to terrorize them into supporting him with the help of the state machinery which the governor has put at his disposal and the anti-social elements he can organize. Mr. Rama Rao has threatened to launch a six-day Andhra Bandh if the assembly is not summoned by Saturday. This too will arouse the people further and make potential defectors to Mr Bhaskara Rao think twice, however tempting his offers.
From the facts available to us we cannot resist drawing the inference that the game is up in Hyderabad and the quicker Mrs Gandhi packs off both Mr Ram Lal and Mr Bhaskara Rao the better for her, her party and the country. But we are also aware that, as in the past, guilty men in New Delhi and Hyderabad now will try to convince her that the opposition is in fact gunning for her and not for them, that it is attacking them in order to demolish her defences and that she has no choice but to dig in her toes. It will be invidious to name names and this is not even necessary. The country knows the names of individuals who have in the past managed to push her forward so that she took on the battle on their behalf. We can only hope that she does not yield to these dangerous men. She has no reason to. For one thing, NTR is no JP, despite the status Mr Ram Lal has conferred on him. For another, in 1977 opposition leaders could still convince themselves and the people that they could indeed provide an alternative to the Congress. The task is not all that easy after the dismal experience of 1977-79.
Finally, Mrs Gandhi can, if she chooses, still defuse the situation in Hyderabad and in the process deny the opposition the only platform on which they can rest their unrealistic hopes of unity. All that she has to do is to remove Mr Ram Lal from Hyderabad and permit the true balance of forces between Mr Rama Rao and Mr Bhaskara Rao to assert itself. To be candid, this might involve a loss of face for her in view of the extraordinary statement the home minister, Mr PV Narasimha Rao, made in Parliament on Tuesday. But that will at worst be a temporary affair which the opposition will not be able to exploit much to its electoral advantage. Opposition leaders will almost certainly return to their familiar feuds once Andhra ceases to be the burning issue. Mrs Gandhi need not continue to make a present of it to them.
She and not Mr Rama Rao would have emerged as the hero last Tuesday if she had followed her disclaimer of prior knowledge of the Andhra governor’s intentions with the statement, in Mahatma Gandhi’s style, that what had happened in Hyderabad was unfortunate and that she would take immediate steps to undo it. By adopting the stance she did, she has thrown away that opportunity. But she can still retrieve her position by doing what is her duty as Prime Minister – to protect the Constitution she has sworn to uphold by getting rid of those who have carried out a most violent assault on it.