India Revokes Takeover of Its Poorest State

March 9, 1999

India Revokes Takeover of Its Poorest State

Related Article New Delhi Bid to Take Over Eastern State Hits Obstacles (Feb. 28)

By CELIA W. DUGGER

EW DELHI, India -- Bowing to certain defeat in the upper house of Parliament, the Indian government on Monday revoked its takeover of the government of Bihar, the poorest and second-most populous state.

Last month the national government dismissed the state government of Chief Minister Rabri Devi and her husband, Laloo Prasad Yadav, who belong to the low-ranking cowherds' caste, on the ground that the state, home to almost 100 million people, had descended into lawlessness in the nine years that they had governed.

The move required the approval of both houses of Parliament. Home Minister L.K. Advani conceded Monday morning that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had failed to persuade the opposition Congress Party to support the takeover, dooming it to defeat in the House, where the governing coalition, led by Hindu nationalists, is in the minority.

Members of the opposition thumped their desks in delight after Advani's remarks. Yadav, a member of Parliament, held a triumphant news conference in New Delhi, while his wife, Mrs. Devi, who is generally expected to reclaim her post as chief minister, greeted well-wishers in Patna, the state capital. Many of them garlanded her with necklaces of marigolds.

The immediate sparks for national rule in Bihar, imposed last month, were two massacres in which an outlawed upper-caste army formed by landowners killed 34 men, women and children, mostly poor farm workers from the lowest castes, formerly called untouchables.

The government had an uphill battle to pass its measure in the lower house, where it has a slender majority. Vajpayee, who heads the Bharatiya Janata Party, turned the issue into a virtual referendum on his government, aggressively lobbying reluctant parties in his coalition.

They have traditionally opposed using the constitutional provision that allows the national government to unseat democratically elected state governments, a power that has been invoked more than 100 times in 50 years.

Vajpayee met for 45 minutes on Sunday with the Congress Party president, Sonia Gandhi. But she would not reverse her position and support the Bihar takeover.

Both parties said they were acting in the best interests of the residents of Bihar. Vajpayee said his party was seeking to protect low-caste laborers. Congress officials accused his government of seeking to strengthen its position in the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, which dominated Bihar politics for decades, have been struggling to win ground in the vote-rich state, which is essential to their dreams of ruling in New Delhi without a heavy reliance on unreliable coalition partners.

Yadav's National People's Party has dominated Bihar's politics with a coalition of middle- and lower-caste voters and Muslims.

Human rights workers and political analysts in Bihar said the Bharatiya Janata Party, which draws most of its support there from the upper castes, wanted to do away with the current government and get its hands on the reins of patronage in the state. That was a prospect that the Congress Party was loath to support, even though Mrs. Gandhi said Mrs. Devi's government had lost the moral authority to rule after the second massacre.

The landlords' armies sprang up in the 1970s in Bihar and have periodically committed atrocities against landless workers.

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