Advani apparently had said that Bhandari's appointment in Bihar was ``political'' which had led to the hue and cry within the party and the bitterness between the Governor and the home minister. Bhandari had offered to quit, packed his bags and arrived in Delhi armed with a resignation letter which was meant not only to serve its literal purpose but to embarrass the minister in front of the nation. However, ``wiser counsel'' prevailed and Advani has now finally had to eat his words and said that what he had said had created unnecessary ``misunderstandings'' between him and the Bihar governor. Naturally, with the RSS bosses behind him, Bhandari will now continue to rule Bihar under the logic that he, as Governor, has the right to govern and assume executive charge in a state which has seen the murder of democracy of the most foul kind. The RSS has now been openly seen to be holding the reins of power in the Union government and Bhandari's victory could well signal a major loss for the nation.

However, this does not take away from the import of Advani's remark. A man who has been in politics for a long time, the Union home minister is not known to mince his words and is a self-avowed master in hardline politics.Advani's admission that Bhandari needed to be replaced to pave the way for a ``apolitical appointee'' in the Bihar Raj Bhavan has now thrown up the obvious answer to a question which had the nation searching its soul for a long time now. Was Bhandari's appointment political in the first place? Was he brought in only to dislodge the Rashtriya Janata Dal government in Bihar as a sort of revenge for the arrest of Advani after the Ayodhya rathyatra some years back? Was all this part of a larger conspiracy to hit at the basics of the Constitution and its democratic structure? Had the Raj Bhavan become a sanctuary for political conspirators?

Nobody is willing to answer this question in black and white. But the Bhandari drama in Delhi has cleared the air; Advani stands exposed. If the Union home minister of a country is actually seen to be looking around for an ``apolitical appointee'' as Governor of the second most politically important state of the country which has now gone under a spell of President's Rule, then it does not require much understanding of the basics of logic to come to the conclusion that Bhandari's anger was solely the result of having his mask opened in public by the very man who must have concurred during the deliberations on his appointment in the capital earlier.The matter is serious. Indeed, it is not an issue of apologies any longer. Neither can it be dismissed as just the usual wranglings within a party. We are talking here of a party which is ruling the nation. We are talking of the Constitution. We are talking of values inculcated by the founding fathers of this nation.

The stranglehold of the RSS over the party in power could also throw up major questions. Bhandari has stayed on because the RSS wants him to continue the havoc that he has successfully created in the politically sensitive state of Bihar. Article 356, always a contentious issue among the saner political forces in the country, was imposed on Bihar with law and order as the excuse. The former chief minister and RJD chief, Laloo Prasad Yadav, has rightly said that if that is the case, then the governments of other states, BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh chief among them, had also lost the right to rule. There cannot be different sets of rules for different states; the yardstick of appointments, as well as dismissals, should be the same. The RSS-led BJP seems to be forgetting that. Already demands are being in various quarters to dismiss legitimate governments in Opposition-ruled states. If the RSS, rabid as it is, sticks to its single-minded mission of achieving a Fascist regime throughout the country, then the trend is worthy of some serious introspection.

The BJP government, egged on by the RSS bosses, has already struck and used its licence as the highest decision -making authority in the country to create a precedent which can only be described as an exercise in fascism. The BJP is not in any position to wrest power in Bihar ; this exercise thus can be seen as a gross infringement on the rights of the people of the state. The BJP has also tied up with the opportunist Samata Party in the state. It is now no secret that the fruits of the Bihar spoils has to be divided among the allies. Significantly, the Samata Party is not happy with Bhandari and its chief, Nitish Kumar, who is also the railway minister, has made it clear that his party supports Advani. Obviously, Bhandari is not willing to play ball with the Samata and is unwilling to share the spoils. Thus the Samata is angry. Many of its leaders have openly revolted against the BJP leadership and even threatened to desert the tottering coalition.

Uncertainty looms ahead. And when the fate of a state like in Bihar is up for sale, then the repercussions could be disastrous. All the distress signals are evident. The captain of the sinking ship is visible only in the background. These are desperate times for the government. And when fascists become desperate, then the net result can only be utter chaos. India, unless wider counsel prevails, could be late even for the ultimate SOS.