The Hindu : Of Deputy Prime Ministers

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Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002

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Of Deputy Prime Ministers

By Ajay K. Mehra

Neither the post of Deputy Prime Minister nor the number two position in the Cabinet necssarily guarantees ascent to the prime ministerial chair.

THE ELEVATION of Lal Krishna Advani as the Deputy Prime Minister is significant not only for the BJP, the NDA and the polity, but also for the emerging party politics in the country. The Cabinet reshuffle that followed, adds additional political subtext to it. An appointment to the post, which is not mentioned in the Constitution, for only the seventh time in 55 years since Independence comes soon after the controversy surrounding the Time article on the Prime Minister's health.

Sardar Patel became the first Deputy Prime Minister, even before the Constitution of India was framed. His appointment with the vital portfolios of Home and States signified equal stature of the top two leaders. Yet, statutory sanction for this post was never an issue in the Constituent Assembly, which obviously reflected an unstated political consensus of its political nature then and in future. No wonder then that Morarji Desai was the next to be offered the post, in 1967 to mollify him and blunt his opposition to Indira Gandhi. Morarji Desai himself as Prime Minister in 1979 was compelled by politics to appoint two Deputies — Mr. Charan Singh and Mr. Jagjivan Ram. However, this postponed the end of the Janata Government only by a year. Then Charan Singh made Y. B .Chavan his Deputy Prime Minister as a price for his support.

Devi Lal has the distinction of twice being Deputy Prime Minister, again under curious political circumstances. After the 1989 elections, he first aligned with V.P. Singh to short-circuit Chandra Shekhar's prime ministerial claims; this made him the sixth Deputy Prime Minister. However, as his family members' volatile politics eclipsed his Cabinet berth, he later aligned with Mr. Chandra Shekhar. Naturally, he was anointed Deputy Prime Minister once again when Mr. Chandra Shekhar formed the Government with outside support from the Congress.

Thus, three interlinked political circumstances have created Deputy Prime Ministers — near-equal political stature of two political leaders, as in the case of Patel and Nehru; to obviate political competition by accommodation, as in the case of Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram and Devi Lal; and the compulsions of coalition politics, as in the case of Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram and Devi Lal. Succession has never been a factor. The Sardar and Morarji Desai were older than Nehru and Indira Gandhi respectively. And, two Deputy Prime Ministers in one Cabinet could never be an effective succession formula! Chavan and Devi Lal owed their positions to special coalitional circumstances with inherent political uncertainty.

Obviously, Mr. Advani's appointment does not fall into any of these categories. Though he was number two in the Cabinet, he was not appointed Deputy Prime Minister under the earlier Vajpayee Governments. Though the BJP owed its rise to Mr. Advani's contentious rath yatra in 1989, Atal Behari Vajpayee was considered the natural choice to lead the BJP Government. The rath yatra and tough stance on the Ayodhya issue gave Mr. Advani a halo in Hindutva circles that described him as potential Prime Minister during 1988-89. However, when the crunch came, Mr. Advani himself had to announce, as he is doing now, that Mr. Vajpayee is the undisputed leader of the BJP.

Now, apparently, succession appears to be a prominent, if not the predominant, motive. Though Mr. Advani appears to be the most obvious BJP, and possibly NDA, choice should Mr. Vajpayee step down today, his elevation as Deputy Prime Minister does not in anyway guarantee it any more than his being the number two in the Cabinet. It is a moot question whether others in contention will accept him as their natural leader when the crunch comes. It is important to note that none of the Deputy Prime Ministers in India could succeed their Prime Minister. Desai became the Premier leading a different political outfit under changed political circumstances and Charan Singh's prime ministerial ambitions were fulfilled with dubious political manoeuvres. Even Nehru, who had made the choice of his successor clear by bringing in Lal Bahadur Shastri as Minister without Portfolio in the wake of his illness, neither made him Deputy Prime Minister nor the number two. Interestingly, Gulzarilal Nanda twice did not get the party's nod as the number two in the two cases of succession in the Congress during the 1960s. Without contending that Mr. Advani will not succeed Mr. Vajpayee, it would be fair to suggest that neither the post of Deputy Prime Minister nor the number two position in the Cabinet necessarily guarantees ascent to the prime ministerial chair. In fact, though post-Vajpayee BJP politics might still witness a contest, which indeed is not a negative sign politically, Mr. Advani in any case might eventually emerge the winner. Obviously, the present rather than the future appears to be the motive behind the move.

Mr. Advani's elevation has come in the wake of a decline in the BJP's electoral fortunes, criticism of the party over the Gujarat riots, a revival of shrillness in the posturing of the Sangh Parivar on the Ayodhya issue, and the controversial reports about Mr. Vajpayee's indifferent health followed by his statement that Mr. Advani would have to share greater responsibility. The cabinet reshuffle following Mr. Advani's elevation too points to the party's political imperatives having prevailed over everything else.

Two messages have been sought to be conveyed strongly. First, there is no rift between Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani. Second, with Mr. Advani sharing `greater' responsibility, with pro-Hindutva persons in command at crucial places and the BJP having strengthened itself vis-a-vis the NDA allies, the `Hindu' vote bank should feel reassured.

Therefore, the elevation of Mr. Advani as Deputy Prime Minister signifies his political ascent vis-a-vis Mr. Vajpayee. It may not necessarily mean Mr. Vajpayee's political eclipse, because he is still a `useful' mascot to please the moderate and `sitting-on-the-fence' voters. Moreover, despite his occasional assertions, Mr. Vajpayee has never shown the proclivity to rise above or go contrary to the Sangh Parivar. Naturally, the Sangh Parivar has no problem in dealing with him. The Vajpayee-Advani hiatus, despite denials, appears real, though it never had the potential to boil over because of the duo's prudence and Mr. Vajpayee's eventual submission to the demands of the `Parivar'. Moreover, despite the duo's attempts to project themselves like the Nehru-Patel duumvirate, the Nehru-Patel synergy despite strong differences has never been visible between Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani.

The post of Deputy Prime Minister has traditionally been used as part of political accommodation; therefore the BJP cannot be faulted in using this time-tested device at this crucial juncture of its history. However, the Tony Blair Government in UK has demonstrated recently that this office can be institutionalised as a constitutional tool for good governance.

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