HVK Archives: Egg on his goatee
Egg on his goatee - The Free Press Journal
Editorial
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8 August 1997
Title: Egg on his goatee
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: August 8, 1997
The Gujral Government seems determined to trip over the very mines it
strews in its way in the first place. Characteristically, the Prime
Minister goes to Kashmir and offers unconditional talks with the militants.
Confronted in Parliament with the enormity of his mistake, Gujral eats
crow and blames it all on the Press for having got him wrong. Again, a few
days later, the Government springs a surprise on the nation by refusing to
notify the decision it had itself announced with great fanfare to implement
the Fifth Pay Panel's report. It offers an equally silly excuse for not
sticking by its decision. It says that since none was pleased with its
acceptance of the pay panel's recommendations, which it claims to have
improved upon substantially, it would rather not implement them. Following
the expected hullabaloo in Parliament, the Government resiles and says that
it has not withdrawn its acceptance of the pay panel recommendations but
merely postponed the notification in order to remove certain anomalies
brought to its notice by the recalcitrant unions. As if such self-inflicted
wounds were not enough in a mere week, the Government on Wednesday scored
yet another self-goal when fearing defeat it withdrew the controversial
Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill. That the Union Finance Minister, P.
Chidambaram, was directly responsible for two of the three failures of the
Gujral Government should help underline the limits of his self-assurance,
nay, arrogance. Neither a good educational background, nor a show of
brazenness nor, for that matter, a command over a foreign language can
substitute solid hard work. Chidambaram's job it was to ensure that all
loose ends were tied up fully before he announced the implementation of the
pay panel's report. The Government took an unconscionably long time in
pronouncing its verdict on the panel's report and when at last it did it
turned out to be wholly skewered. However Chidambaram can have no excuse
whatsoever for Wednesday's events which ended with him and the Prime
Minister having egg strewn all over their faces. It would have been in the
best traditions of parliamentary democracy if the Finance Minister, that is
in case the Prime Minister himself refused to own, had tendered his
resignation following Wednesday's faux pas. There are no excuses to
mitigate the Finance Minister's, nay, the entire Government's failure. It
was expected that it would carry the majority with it when it came forward
with the Bill. Barring once in 1966, never since Independence had the
Government been forced to withdraw a Bill at the third stage of its
reading. There could be no greater humiliation for the Government than its
failure to muster support of the very groups which in the first place made
such an unwholesome government possible. That the Leftists, a major prop
of the United Front, refused to bail out the Government just when it needed
their help the most spotlights the increasing hiatus between them and the
Prime Minister. And it underlines the failure of the Government to take
note of their sentiments on the privatisation of the insurance sector.
Chidambaram is guilty of trying to ride rough shod over the opinion of the
Leftists and several other constituents which together make that caboodle
called United Front. He had promised to come up with the Insurance
Regulatory Bill in his Budget speech last February. Between then and now he
had plenty of time to thrash out the contentious issues, set at rest the
fears of the Leftists and the BJP about foreign domination of the
privatised insurance sector and generally reassure the concerned trade
unions that their interests were in no way being jeopardised. But the
haughty Chidambaram neither had the inclination nor the good sense to seek
out the co-operation of all sections of the House. He banked on his
cleverness to play the Leftists against the BJP in order to get his way on
the insurance Bill. Just as well he failed miserably. He was being too
clever by half. The BJP saw through his game despite Atal Behari
Vajpayee's felt need to play the elder statesman on all such occasions when
the Government finds itself vulnerable. Vajpayee ought not to he seen to be
whittling away the BJP's opposition to the Gujral Government in order to
win for himself a few brownie points for his large heartedness. The
secularists would still dub him communal even if every now and then he
rescued them from drowning. In any case, there was merit in the BJP
amendment which sought to restrict the privatisation of the insurance
sector only to Indian companies. Maybe the foreign insurance companies
could enter the insurance sector but only as junior partners to Indian
corporates. Privatisation of the insurance sector eventually would do a lot
of good to Indians. The insurance habit ought to be encouraged. Every
Indian, rich or not-so-rich, ought to buy himself a hedge against rainy
day. Insurance polices, especially in a poor country like India, can be a
means of inculcating the saving habit. Admittedly a regulatory authority
for monitoring the licensing and functioning of private companies will
necessarily be the first step towards privatisation of the insurance
sector. The modalities of privatisation and the terms for entry of foreign
parties, albeit as minor partners of Indian companies, ought to be spelt
out in advance before the Government seeks to have the proposed Insurance
Regulatory Authority Bill passed by Parliament. Meanwhile, Gujral would do
well to introspect why he ends up with egg on his goatee so very often.
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