President's rule in Bihar, Lalu stays away from Cabinet

All the Rashtriya Janata Dal ministers in the United Progressive Alliance government today stayed away from a Cabinet meeting held to ratify President's rule in Bihar.

The Cabinet did clear the proposal but without the benefit of the wisdom of either Railway Minister Lalu Prasad or Minister for Fertiliser, Chemicals and Steel Ramvilas Paswan.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil sought to make light of the absence of the ministers and in a two-line briefing on the hour-long deliberations of the Cabinet, said the ministers could not attend as they "were not in Delhi". He said the Cabinet endorsed President's rule and added that the Assembly would be kept in suspended animation till further notice.

Even senior ministers like Raghuvansh Prasad Singh stayed away from the meeting""angry and bitter at the action of a government they feel is being kept afloat through their support.

There was no door that Prasad did not knock today as the deadline ran out for a new Assembly to be constituted. He called on Congress President Sonia Gandhi as well as CPI(M) leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet. There was, however, no support from anywhere, and he left for Patna just before the Cabinet meeting, saying as his party was opposed to the imposition of President's Rule, he preferred not to attend the Cabinet meeting that would endorse this measure.

Both the Congress and the CPI(M) were hard put to explain the move. Congress spokesman Anand Sharma faced a barrage of questions from reporters on whether letting down Prasad was a "secular" move and whether the Congress concurred with Prasad's characterisation of Paswan as "anti-secular".

It now transpires that the CPI had been hesitant even about giving the RJD its letter of support. The CPI(M) conceded that Prasad had shown maturity in not rocking the secular UPA boat, but refused to endorse Prasad's views about Paswan.

The CPI(M) refused to get involved "" secularism or not "" in the internal wrangling of the UPA and said Paswan and Prasad should sort out their differences.

In Patna, the bureaucracy was caught in the grips of speculation about who would be appointed adviser to the governor.

The lynchpin of the Rabri Devi administration, former state chief secretary Mukund Prasad, went on a month's leave in an attempt to dissociate himself from the events. Indications are that the RJD chief will do his best to appoint Prasad one of the advisers.