Column

Ho hum! We’re back to Bofors again. Two tired old parties, the Congress and the BJP, battling it out over a tired old issue. At the time of writing this, the only point of interest is whether Congress will sack the law minister, HR Bhardwaj, like it did with Natwar Singh over the Volcker report. The process of distancing has started. Both the Congress and the PMO have disowned the move to get Quattrochi’s money released and passed on the blame to Bhardwaj. This has activated the party’s lawyer circuit, which incidentally dislikes Bhardwaj intensely, and it’s lobbying hard behind the scenes for the minister’s removal. The legal eagles are a formidable bunch—P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Abhishekh Singhvi, Ashwini Kumar. Does Bhardwaj stand a chance?

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Bhardwaj’s saving grace is that he’s removed himself from the ruthless glare of TV cameras. That was Natwar Singh’s undoing. He and son Jagat fell into the trap of defending themselves on television. The case against them got worse every time they opened their mouths. Congress circles concede that Singh dug his own grave. He just might have saved his job had he kept a low profile. Well, Bhardwaj was in danger of going the Natwar way when he shot his mouth off on television the day after the story broke. He not only defended the government move but argued as if he was Quattrochi’s lawyer. Sonia’s firefighters immediately swung into action. The Congress grapevine has it that Ahmed Patel has issued strict instructions to Bhardwaj to keep away from the media.

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Just as well that Bhardwaj has been forced to go underground because he has a penchant for shooting off his mouth once he gets talking. Congress circles recall an incident from the Narasimha Rao government era. Bhardwaj was the law minister then too and rumours were swirling that he could be dropped in the next reshuffle. He went on television to proclaim that no Congress prime minister would dare drop him because of services rendered. He said he had “fixed” cases for so many Congress leaders including Narasimha Rao, Bhajan Lal, etc. Of course, he was only telling it like it is. He’s been handling legal matters for the Congress party, the Gandhi family and other senior leaders for decades. In fact, he was so close to the Gandhis that he used to accompany Rajiv and Sonia when they filed their nomination papers from Amethi.

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Bhardwaj’s Achilles heel is that he retires from the Rajya Sabha in April this year. If he doesn’t get re-nominated, he actually stands to lose his minister’s post. His problem is that he’s in competition with another Gandhi family loyalist, Arjun Singh, for the solitary Congress seat from Madhya Pradesh. Singh too bows out of the RS in April. Bhardwaj’s opponents have adopted a two-pronged strategy. Drop him now; or don’t re-nominate him to the RS in April and he’s automatically out of the Cabinet. The Congress can’t really afford to lose another minister in a scandal that brings controversy perilously close to 10 Janpath. Now it’s up to Bhardwaj and whether he can stay away from the glamour of television.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net