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Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: Niticentral.com
Date: December 10, 2012
URL: http://www.niticentral.com/2012/12/debilitating-vote-bank-politics.html
There are two versions of what Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said while addressing an election rally at Vadodara in Gujarat last Sunday. According to a report published in the Indian Express on Monday, he said: “The Congress has made a person whose name is (Syed) Ibrahim the chief of IB (Intelligence Bureau).” Senior NDTVjournalist Sunetra Choudhury tweeted on Monday “Shinde: Muslim koi wahan tak nahin gaya. Sonia Gandhiji ne Ibrahim naam ke aadmi ko us par pahunchaya. Kya doosra koi himmat kar sakta tha?”
Shinde’s public assertion raises several questions. First, has India reached a stage where the Director of Intelligence Bureau is chosen by the ruling party, and not the Government, on the basis of political considerations? Are we then truly comparable to a banana republic? Second, if the version tweeted by Ms Choudhury is correct, is Congress president Sonia Gandhi now deciding who gets to head the IB? What does that say of the Government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh? Third, has faith become the criterion for selecting who gets to head which agency of the Government? What are the implications of such crass vote-bank politics?
By all accounts, Mr Ibrahim is an able and deserving officer. To use him as a trophy for pandering to Muslims at the time of elections is not only repugnant but also hugely damaging for his reputation as well as the institution he heads. It is for Mr Ibrahim to protest against Mr Shinde’s shocking assertion, which he is unlikely to do because he reports to the Home Minister. But the nation cannot afford to ignore such debilitating vote-bank politics. Gujarat’s voters should give a befitting reply to Mr Shinde.
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