India’s Prime Minister Expels Rival in Party

Indian Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh, battling to seize the moral high ground over policies that have sparked two months of Hindu riots, expelled his party rival for the country’s leadership today.

His Janata Dal Party announced the expulsion of veteran socialist Chandra Shekhar hours after the dissident leader staked his claim to become prime minister ahead of a parliamentary vote of confidence set for Wednesday.

“I can’t claim I can solve the problems but I will make a humble effort,” Shekhar had told reporters after rebels declared him Janata Dal leader and demanded that President Ramaswami Venkataraman ask him to form a government.

But the party’s official spokesman called a news conference to declare that Singh will lead Janata Dal, purged of about 30 dissidents including Shekhar, into almost certain parliamentary defeat Wednesday.

“We knew we had sacrificed a government for the sake of a lofty secular principle,” spokesman Jaipal Reddy said of Singh’s decision last month to bar Hindu fundamentalists from laying claim to a disputed sacred site in the northern town of Ayodhya.

Singh has lost his parliamentary majority because he pushed plans to favor low-caste Hindus for government jobs, then opposed demands to replace a Muslim mosque with a Hindu temple at Ayodhya.