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V P Singh is working for a Pax Indica between UF and Congress

George Iype in New Delhi

Former prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh has begun negotiations with Congress and United Front leaders to end their hostilities in order to usher in a post-election patch-up.

Expecting the ongoing Lok Sabha election to result in a hung Parliament, Singh is now holding parleys between senior Congress and UF leaders in a bid to thwart the Bharatiya Janata Party's aim of coming to power.

Sources said Singh has already met Congress leaders Dr Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Madhvarao Scindia and Ghulam Nabi Azad, and UF leaders like caretaker Prime Minister I K Gujral, West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.

His mission: to urge Congress and UF leaders to stop attacking each other, to abandon their hostility as they would need to do business next fortnight.

The ailing Raja of Manda played a key role in welding varied regional parties into one consolidated front and installing the UF government some 20 months ago. He also negotiated peace between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Tamil Maanila Congress in a bid to keep the 13-party UF stay together after the Congress withdrew support to the Gujral government last November.

He now wants both the Congress and the UF to come to the negotiating table soon after the poll results are out.

Wasim Ahmed, Singh's associate and Janata Dal Rajya Sabha MP, says the former prime minister's talks with the Congress and UF leaders were meant to ensure that both groups join hands and prevent the BJP from ascending to power at the Centre.

"Singh is convinced that the BJP's agenda is not good for the country. He is therefore preparing the ground for the Congress and the UF to agree on certain issues for a lasting relationship," Ahmed told Rediff On The NeT.

He said the former prime minister wants both the Congress and UF to adopt a minimum national programme on key issues such as liberalisation, the economy, defence and the social sector. Singh believes a post-poll arrangement between the Congress and UF will be possible only if they set a common economic and social agenda.

Though the shape of the next government will be known only after the results are out on March 3, Singh is not averse to the idea of the UF supporting a Congress-led regime if both the partners work out a common minimum agenda.

How the Congress has reacted to Singh's overtures is yet to be ascertained. Congress sources rule out the possibility of the party supporting a UF government after the general election.

"Singh's mission will succeed if the UF leaders are willing to join hands with the Congress to form the next government," a Congress official told Rediff On The NeT.

Some UF leaders are hostile to Singh's decision to negotiate with them and the Congress leadership when the election is on. The former prime minister, who once launched his crusade against the Congress on the controversial Bofors scandal, has recently taken a soft stand on the issue after Sonia Gandhi demanded that the government make the Bofors papers public.

How the Left parties react to Singh's proposal will be crucial too; most Communists are unwilling to support 'a Sonia-led Congress'.

Singh also needs to convince South Indian parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam, the Tamil Maanila Congress and the Telugu Desam Party about the need to have such an arrangement with the Congress. It is highly unlikely that the DMK and TMC will go along with Singh's scheme; both parties have long standing disagreements with the Congress party.

Elections '98

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