HVK Archives: The mother of all apologies
The mother of all apologies - The Indian Express
T.J.S. George
()
January 21, 1998
Title: The mother of all apologies
Author: T.J.S. George
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: January 21, 1998
Why only Bluestar, Dr Singh? The scions of the Nehru-Gandhi
dynasty must shoulder the responsibility for the most destructive
decisions taken in India since Independence.
Manmohan Singh is rapidly developing the politician's trademark
trick of saying many things without saying anything. The latest
is the interview in this newspaper in which he spoke of the need
to apologise over Babri demolition and Operation Bluestar.
Or did he speak of such a need? He did admit that the mosque
demolition was a shameful blot (so what's new?). But about the
Congress apologising for it, his reply was: "If people want to
use the word apology, I have no objection." A profound
concession.
Should the Congress apologise for Operation Bluestar? Again, the
former Finance Minister was quite clear when he said it was a
most unfortunate episode for which "we owe an apology to the
nation." Then the politician added: "If a section is soothed by
someone on behalf of the Indian nation expressing regret......
Pressed whether the Congress should express regret, the former
Finance Minister and present Political Minstrel said: "The
Congress can express regret without apportioning blame or
accepting that it (the Congress) was responsible. Many factors
were responsible."
So what exactly did he say? Certainly he didn't say Yes. And he
didn say No. The consummate politician never gives a simple
answer to a simple question. His primary duty is to ensure that
the citizen/voter is impressed by the phraseology and has no time
to realise that nothing of substance has been said.
There is a whole lot of matters on which apologies are really and
truly due. This series of grave offences against the nation
began in the very wake of Independence. We have not recognised
the gravity of these national setbacks at the hands of our
national leaders because they are elements of current
controversies. History's perspective is not yet available for
them to appear in all their horrendous dimensions. However, even
without the advantage of time lapse, it is possible to list the
most glaring lapses that have diminished our country.
Lapse No 1. Jawaharlal Nehru's off-the-cuff remark that India
would welcome a plebiscite in Kashmir under UN auspices. A policy
line of such gravity is never announced by any responsible
government without Cabinet discussion and proper study. Nehru
made the offer in a casual way and India is still paying the
price.
Lapse No.2. Indira Gandhi's astonishingly short-sighted policy of
budding up Bhindranwale as a political ally. In no time
Frankenstein grew bigger than its inventor and Punjab was turned
into a terror state. The natural consequence of this foolishness
was Operation Bluestar which Manmohan Singh admits, with all his
humming and hawing, as an "unfortunate" development.
But he still does not want to hold the Congress responsible for
it, saying that "many factors were involved and they can be read
in several ways." Pray, what factors? Pakistan? Hindus?
Communists? Foreign Hand? It was an Indira Gandhi initiative from
start to finish. Unless Manmohan Singh's argument is that the
Congress was different from Indira Gandhi.
Lapse No.3. The mindless carnage against Sikhs in Delhi in the
aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination. Sure, this was not a
matter of official government policy. But let's not forget that
the names of the two Sikh guards were immediately released, and
that Rajiv Gandhi's initial reaction to the anti-Sikh rioting was
that "when a mighty tree falls, the ground will shake".
Lapse No.4. Rajiv Gandhi's decision to amend the Constitution and
blatantly subvert the Supreme Court's decision in the Shah Bano
case. lie ruling that divorced Muslim women were entitled to
maintenance was hailed widely, including by significant sections
of Muslims. But to placate the orthodox leadership of the
community, Rajiv Gandhi went to the extent of changing the very
charter of the nation - an unforgivable act. The tragedy was
compounded by the fact that, just as one lie leads to another,
the irresponsible decision in the Shah Bano case led to another
irresponsible decision, namely
Lapse No.5. lie decision to break open the locks on the Babri
Masjid gates. Rajiv Gandhi's thoughtless move to win over Muslim
orthodoxy made him think that he should now do something to win
the Hindu vote. It was an amateur politician's approach to
critical national problems. The locks had been put there by
Sardar Patel, then Home Minister of India. Opposed though he was
to what he considered half-baked liberalism on the part of Nehru,
Patel was mature enough to realise that nothing was to be gained
by pitting one community against another in an explosive spot
like Ayodhya. Rajiv Gandhi demolished Patel's wisdom leading to a
more spectacular demolition soon enough.
Lapse No.6. The biggest international misadventure in Asia since
the end of the war - the IPKF military putsch into Sri Lanka.
Diametrically opposed to every tenet of Indian foreign policy
till then, this move by Rajiv Gandhi was not merely a blunder; it
was a sin because the Prime Minister chose to be double-faced
about it.
Facts since revealed, in particular by the Jain Commission's
halfway-house report, have shown that the same Prime Minister who
despatched India's brave soldiers to fight in the jungles of
Jaffna was simultaneously maintaining intelligence-level contacts
with the LTTE. This led to giving an advantage to the LTTE while
keeping our own soldiers on a tight leash - an extraordinarily
treacherous line for a country's prime minister to adopt against
his own military men.
Lapse No.7. The greatest of all political sins - the Emergency.
The list can of course go on. We have not even mentioned here the
selling of the country to the World Trade Organisation or the
uniquely Indian brand of liberalisation which, unlike
liberalisation in China and like liberalisation in Mexico, works
for the benefit of Western corporations at the expense of Indian
enterprise.
But even with the few items enumerated here, Manmohan Singh and
his current patron-in-chief will find it hard to deny that each
and every one of these lapses/sins/offences against the nation
took place under Congress auspices as a direct consequence of
decisions by Congress leaders of supreme power. Indeed they
cannot deny that all of these offences were committed by the
scions of the so-called Nehru Gandhi dynasty. One family must
shoulder the responsibility for the most destructive decisions
taken in India since Independence This certainly is a family
without a parallel in the country. For that reason, the mother
of all apologies is due from those who hail as saviours the one
family that has done the greatest damage to India.
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