Surendra Kishore
On February 13, 1991, the Governor of Bihar, Yunus Salim, was sacked by the central government for criticizing the dismissal of the Tamil Nadu government. Yunus Saleem was made the governor during the tenure of VP Singh’s government. When he was sacked, there was a government of Chandrashekhar at the center with the support of the Congress. The Governor addressed a joint sitting of both the Houses of the Bihar Legislature on February 10, 1991. In his address, he also said, among other things, that “the dismissal of the government of Tamil Nadu is a step against democratic principles”.
This remark of Governor Yunus Saleem was seen as a remark against the President. Because the President puts the final seal on the paper of dismissal of the state cabinet. Then R Venkataraman was the President of the country. On this, the cabinet of the then Prime Minister Chandrashekhar government recommended to the President that Yunus Salim be removed from the post of Governor. Salim was sacked on the night of 13 February.
The President appointed Uttar Pradesh Governor B Satyanarayana Reddy as the Acting Governor of Bihar and asked him to take charge till further arrangements were made. Union Minister of State for Home Subodh Kant Sahai had said that before that Kaifiyat was sought from Governor Yunus Salim. Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad called the dismissal of Yunus Salim as an attack on democracy. He said that Governor Yunus Saleem did not send a report against our government to the Center. He was dismissed as a punishment for the same. Yunus Saleem himself called his dismissal as illegal and un-democratic.
Salim also said that the governors had criticized the central government on two occasions in the past as well. But those governors were not dismissed. On the other hand, the ruling Janata Dal of Bihar and its allies staged a sit-in against the dismissal, held a meeting and organized a Bihar bandh. Violence broke out on February 19 on the occasion of Bihar Bandh. There was heavy demolition. Bandh supporters destroyed government and non-government property. Hundreds were arrested. A dozen people were injured. One person died due to bullet injuries.
Even before that, there was chaos inside and outside the House even during the address of Governor Yunus Saleem. BJP and Janata Dal (S) MLAs prevented them from addressing the joint session of the legislature in such a way that their caps fell. When the Governor reached the premises of the Legislature Building to receive the guard of honour, the Congress (Indira) and the BJP were raising slogans of ‘Governor go back’. There was also an attempt to stop the Governor from reaching the House.
In fact, before convening the meeting of the House, its timing was not discussed with the Chairman of the Legislative Council, Dr. Umeshwar Prasad Verma, who had been a member of the Congress. Remember that the Congress had a majority in the Legislative Council then. For this reason, the Chairman of the Legislative Council, Dr. Verma, in his welcome address in the House, not only condemned the state government, but also said that “There is a house, there is no government department. The state government did it without consulting me.” The business list has been sent. In this way the rights of the Chairman have been encroached upon.
Had come in controversies before
Before that, Salim had landed in controversies when Lalu Prasad had, for a short time, refused to take oath in the early 1990s. Later he had to take oath. In 1990, the election of the leader of the Janata Dal Legislature Party was held in Bihar under strange circumstances. The main contest was between Lalu Prasad and former Chief Minister Ramsunder Das. Lalu Prasad had the support of Devi Lal and Sharad Yadav.
Ram Sundar Das was internally supported by Prime Minister VP Singh and Ajit Singh. Yunus Salim was close to Charan Singh and Ajit Singh in politics. Chandrashekhar then felt that Prime Minister VP Singh would become strong in politics after Ram Sundar Das became the Chief Minister. That’s why Chandrashekhar got his special man Raghunath Jha made the candidate for the post of leader. Lalu’s victory in the triangular match was considered certain. He won.
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Governor Yunus Saleem’s reasoning behind delaying Lalu’s swearing-in was that even though Lalu Prasad has got the maximum votes in the legislature party’s election, he does not have the support of the majority of the Janata Dal legislators. But later Governor Salim agreed and he got Lalu Prasad sworn in as the Chief Minister. But due to this the bitterness continued between Chief Minister Lalu and Governor Salim. As long as VP Singh was the Prime Minister, it went well.
But after the split of Janata Dal and Chandrashekhar becoming the Prime Minister, the then Union Minister of State for Home Subodh Kant Sahai started pressurizing the Central Government to sack the Lalu government. But Salim did not send any such recommendation to the Centre. Equations change over time. Meanwhile, when the central government dismissed the Tamil Nadu government, it is believed that the Lalu government got Governor Yunus Salim to address the House against the dismissal which was not needed.
(The writer is a senior journalist and political affairs expert)