Faced with turbulent weather, Gowda was detained in Dehra Dun while on an election tour of Uttar Pradesh. But there was clearly more turbulent weather of the political kind in Delhi and Patna where sensitive issues were being deliberated in courts. He is expected to return to the capital today.
Last week, Gowda's government came in for considerable criticism when Rao's bail plea was not opposed by the CBI in the Lakhubhai Pathak case. But yesterday, the criticism was partly blunted as no such stance was adopted by the investigating agency in court, leading to the non-bailable warrants being issued against Rao in the St Kitts forgery case.
However, there was considerable embarrassment in store in the Patna high court, where senior CBI official U N Biswas alleged that higher authorities were interfering with the probe into the fodder scam involving top leaders of Bihar. Chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav was found to be allegedly involved, though Biswas told judges his report had not been submitted to the court.
The developments in Patna followed several meetings between Yadav and Gowda last week, and also on Thursday. The alleged involvement of Yadav in the fodder scam confounded a situation in which the relations between him and Gowda were said to be none too cordial.
The warrant against Rao was issued in the St Kitts case (it was stayed until Monday by the Delhi high court later in the day). That the government would adopt a less conciliatory posture towards Rao than it did in the Lakhubhai Pathak hearing was evident from the utterances of V P Singh on October 2. Singh, who has been in constant touch with Gowda, had stated that no government could allow the impression to spread that it is shelding the corrupt.
Gowda, however, was in the news for anothe reason yesterday. This time in the form of press reports that his daughter-in-law was one of the beneficiaries of the largesse of former minister for petroleum Satish Sharma. She was alleged to have been allotted a petrol pump out of the minister's discretionary quota.
At another level, Gowda's meeting with Chief Justice A M Ahmadi over the weekend continued to create ripples with lawyers bodies like the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the Delhi High Court Bar Association and the Indian Lawyers Forum strongly coming out openly against the meeting.
A general body conclave has been planned by the SCBA on October 10 to consider a resolution questioning the propriety of the meeting.