Prime Minister I K Gujral (right).

NEW DELHI, May 10: Prime Minister I K Gujral believes that there are bound to be contradictions in a coalition government but a common minimum programme can be worked out. Following are the extracts from Coomi Kapoor's interview with Gujral.

Q: Isn't it a near impossible task to manage the contradictions within the United Front government?

A: There are contradictions and also areas of cooperation. I think the point is we have been able to work out a joint common minimum programme.

Q: It is not just a common programme but personality conflicts. Which come in the way?

A: The Deve Gowda government didn't fall because of internal dissensions. I have been a minister in several governments and no Government has had such wholesome discussion. No member of the previous Government can say that any decision was taken which was not discussed in the Cabinet.

Q: I thought Indrajit Gupta complained that he was not consulted about some appointments and decisions.

A: If some people want to say this, they have two faces.

Q: You had no say in the choice of your Cabinet.

A: In a coalition government parties naturally have a right to decide their own representatives. Also we wanted to give the message of continuity.

Q: But surely the Prime Minister should also have faith in the people who are his ministers.

A: I think I have trust in all my ministers. In a coalition government you have to be discrete. You cannot possibly make revolutions.

Q: Does Sonia Gandhi's entry make a difference to the delicate relationship with the party on whose support you are dependent?

A: Neither has the Congress association with the UF government changed nor the UF's with the Congress.

Q: You have changed three parties. You were once a Communist, then in the Congress and then in the Janata Dal.

A: In my entire life, I have never changed a party. I was a Congressman till I left to become an ambassador in 1976. Years later I joined the Janata Dal and I never left it.

Q: How come you don't wear khadi?

A: I wore khadi till 1949. I left wearing it not because I didn't believe in khadi but because of convenience.

Q: Some people say you have no political base which is why you get nominated to the Rajya Sabha instead of fighting Lok Sabha polls.

A: I fought and won the Jallandhar seat in Punjab during the height of terrorism in the State. I have been elected from New Delhi twice in the fifties. I won from Patna in 1991.

Q: Laloo Prasad Yadav takes credit for the Patna victory.

A: Someone has to take the credit.

Q: Are you going to contest a Lok Sabha seat or will you continue in the Rajya Sabha?

A: I still have a year to decide since my Rajya Sabha seat continues for a year.

Q: You are usually associated with foreign policy not domestic policy.

A: Foreign policy has now become a dimension of internal policy. There is no clear line of demarcation what is internal policy and what is external policy.

Q: Some people feel that the Gujral doctrine means that India has to do all the giving and our neighbours the taking.

A: That is what India should do, I believe. The Indian economy is more than all the other economies in the sub-continent put together. So is our land mass. No country has a balance of trade higher than India. These countries rely on Indian assistance to stablilise the sub-continent. How can we take from them?

Q: There is a perception that during the Iraq invasion of Kuwait, our foreign policy was misguided. And we lost much goodwill by your embrace of Saddam Hussain.

A: What was India's primary interest? The 200,000 people stuck in Kuwait. We wanted to get them out and we succeeded. If they were stuck in the war sector, a few thousand would have been killed. When I came back from Iraq and Kuwait, both Houses of Parliament gave me applause.

Q: Can you fulfill the acid test of committing to see that the bill to make education a fundamental right and a quota for women representatives in Parliament will be passed in the next six months.

A: We will press, we cannot commit to passing. How can I commit for Parliament?

Q: These bills for social change never seem to get passed, so we are skeptical of politicians intentions.

A: Social change has to come through persuasion. Especially in a diverse society like ours where people have different mindsets.

Q: What is your feeling about the phenomenon of growing number of PIL's introduced to ensure probity in public life?

A: I would not like to comment on this. I would like society and also Parliament to discuss the issue. We all want to eradicate corruption, justifiably so. But in the process we create such institutions which can be super-institutions. A Prime Minister can be put in the dock. The process can be used to de-stabilise and subvert the system.

The Government may be vulnerable not because of its policies, but because its policies may not be acceptable to someone. It is very simple to get five cases filed to get St Kitts re-instated. So your prime minister is always vulnerable.

I don't know how we can deal with this. But we cannot wash away these aspects. Some remedies are more dangerous than the disease. I am not questioning the fact of PILs but we must also bring rationality.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.