Author: M V Kamath
Publication: The Free Press Jouranl
Date: June 3, 2004
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/030604-features.html
Let it be said rightaway without
mixing words: the Manmohan Singh Government which, in fact, is a Sonia
Gandhi government is a minority government and it has no mandate to rule.
It is entirely at the mercy of its so-called allies who will have no compunction
in making impossible demands and for all one knows the time will come sooner
or later when the Prime Minister will find it impossible to govern. One
can only shed three tears for Sonia Gandhi whose alleged `victory' in the
elections has been so much talked about as if it was a Wonder of Wonders.
In the first place Sonia Gandhi
had no other option but to fight. She is the president of the Congress
and pitiable as it may sound, there just was no one else of any stature
to go round the country and attract crowds even paid crowds brought to
the scene in paid buses. Fancy someone like Natwar Singh or Kamal Nath
attracting crowds at Shivaji Park! Gurudas Kamat will have to spend a fortune
to bus villagers to come to hear him or anyone else, for that matter, in
the Manmohan Singh cabinet. Many of his ministers are tired hands and it
is pathetic that Laloo Prasad Yadav has been given a Ministry and Railways
at that.
Has the Sonia-led government no
moral standards whatsoever? The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, Laloo Prasad
Yadav faces six not one, two or three, but six criminal charges and one
disproportionate assets case. His loyalist, Tasimuddin has nine criminal
cases against him. Both had to quit official posts because they had been
charge-sheeted. Laloo Prasad Yadav who is reportedly worth more than Rs
60 lakhs "excluding the cost of vehicles and jewellery" according to the
affidavit filed before the Election Commission is facing a CBI case for
possessing over Rs 46 lakh beyond known sources of his income.
Also, according to published reports,
there are six criminal cases pending against him in various courts in Ranchi
and Patna related to the multi-crore rupee "Fodder Scam". According to
published reports the CBI has also charged Laloo Prasad under different
sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act with "conspiracy to
protect scamsters and providing them protective umbrellas and the misuse
of power as a public servant".
One paper noted that "all seven
cases against him are at different stages of trial". Should such a man
be included in the Manmohan Singh cabinet? Or, for that matter, in any
cabinet? As one newspaper put it: "In 1997, he (Laloo) handed over the
Chief Minister's chair to the safe hands of wife Rabri Devi before going
to jail. He is now on bail in all the cases".
Is this morally right? It may be
argued that a man is innocent until he is proven guilty. But couldn't Sonia
Gandhi have waited until Laloo Prasad has proved himself innocent before
inducting him into government? What sort of high morality is this? And
granted that a lower court acquits Laloo Prasad, can the Supreme Court
ultimately demand that an injustice has been done and that all the cases
against Laloo must be tried by another state court? That is only one aspect
of the problem. Now take the case of the Leftists who have decided not
to be part of government but to support it from "outside". This means that
they want to reserve for themselves the right any time to overthrow the
Manmohan Singh Government if it does not suit them.
In the first place, again, is it
right for a Congress government to depend upon the Leftists to run a government?
Does Sonia Gandhi know about the record, for instance, of the CPI, during
the quit India movement and even after India became free? The CPI dismissed
the Nehru Government as a false one and freedom itself as jhuti azaadi
(false freedom). It was the then communist chiefP. C. Joshi who called
all his opponents, including the Congress as "fascist elements and fifth
columnists".Is Sonia Gandhi tolerating this insult?
It was again the CPI which supported
the two-nation theory and proclaimed India as not one nation but "a collection
of several separate nationalities" and that "the demand for Pakistan is
a just and democratic one because Hindus would oppress them (Muslims) in
future". Are these the kind of parties on whom the Congress must depend
to stay on in power? What has the Congress come to? What would all those
Congress volunteers who betrayed by the CPI in 1942 and who had to suffer
imprisonment and torture think, if they are still alive? Many were mercilessly
killed.
The blood of patriots is on the
hands of the Communists and it is these hands that Sonia Gandhi wants to
shake in her lust for power. And how credible is Karunanidhi's DMK? At
the beginning Karunanidhi was saying that the DMK would support Sonia Gandhi
as Prime Minister from outside and not be part of it.
The moment Sonia Gandhi said she
won't accept the assignment and named Manmohan Singh to the Prime Ministership,
Karunanidhi changed his mind. And what can one say of Sharad Pawar who
had so loftily said he would not accept Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister
but now has coolly accepted the Food and Agriculture Ministry on the technical
argument that she is not now the Prime Minister? What a fall for a man
of high principles? And think of what Buddhadev Bhattacharya had to say
about Dr Manmohan Singh.
On 13 May, according to The Statesman
(23 May), Buddhadev and other party comrades were calling Manmohn Singh
"the torch-bearer and lackey of World Bank and IMF" but five days later
they were scrambling to "welcome him as the next Prime Minister". And not
so long ago they were also referring to Manmohan Singh as the "infamous
father of the reform process". How long are the Communists going to support
the "Infamous father"? The Communists have no scruples.
In 1948, according to Ranjit Gupta,
a former Inspector General of Police, West Bengal, the CPI had started
a violent militant campaign in Kolkata recruiting refugees who had fled
from East Bengal for their purposes. At every stage of his government Dr
Manmohan Singh will have to surrender to the Leftists, or face dissolution.
Sitaram Yechury has been credited
with the remark that the government will have to "clean up the area of
disinvestments". The idea, as in West Bengal, is to use Public Sector Units
to be run by Communistappointed workers. That is how the communists find
jobs for their cadres. If Dr Manmohan Singh does not know that, he knows
nothing. And may it be said that the Congress just has no mandate to rule;
it does not represent the majority of the people.
The Congress seldom in its long
history has won more than 45 per cent of the popular votes. Presently it
has won only 35 per cent of states it fought in all. That means that 65
per cent of people are opposed to the Congress. In West Bengal and Kerala,
the Congress just had to be satisfied with nothing. In Kerala, the Congress
could win just one seat. In Uttar Pradesh the BJP did better than the Congress
winning 11 seats to 9 won by the Congress.
In Chattisgarh, the BJP and allies
won 10 seats to one won by theCongress. In Bihar, the Congress could get
only three seats. In Rajastahn, the BJP and allies won 21 seats while the
Congress and its allies could manage to get only a measly four! In Punjab,
the BJP and allies could get 11 seats while the Congress and its allies
could get just two. And so on. Who says that the Congress represents the
country? And who says that Sonia Gandhi is the chosen spokes person for
India? For all the tom-tomming of Congress `success', the truth is that
the Congress has got just about what it has been getting all these elections
around 34 per cent of the votes.
In the past there was just no strong
party to challenge it. Now it has one in the BJP. To expect that the Congress
will be able to rule freely and fearlessly in the next five years is to
indulge in day-dreaming. Already there are four power centres: One led
by Sonia Gandhi; one necessarily led by Dr Manmohan Singh; a third led
by the Leftists and the last led by assorted men like Laloo Prasad Yadav
and Karunanidhi.
In the Manmohan Singh cabinet the
south has more seats than the north. Resentment will grow in the coming
weeks; the BJP has just to sit back and watch. As Sarmila Bose has noted
in The Telegraph, the largest chunk of Congress seats comes from Andhra
Pradesh (29) where irresponsible populism may undo them.
In just four days (May 15 to 19)
as many as nine farmers of Andhra Pradesh committed suicide sending out
signals both in the government and Congress that Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhar
Reddy's package on farmers' suicide may boomerang. As Bose rightly noted,
"while the coalition of parties fighting the elections under the banner
of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has lost, the winners seem
more the accidental beneficiaries of others' misfortunes.
It has nothing to do with Sonia
Gandhi or her alleged charm. And let it be said again and again: Sonia
Gandhi's leadership had nothing to do with the Congress victory in Andhra
Pradesh. And soon there will be a price to pay if the promised Telangana
state does not come into existence as believed by its protagonists, in
six moths' time. What if that promise cannot be redeemed? Will the Telangana
Rashtra Samity rebel? And where will that leave Congress chief Minister
Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy?
Seculariststalk about Congress winning
four seats in Gujarat. That is not because of Sonia Gandhi but because
of intra-party struggle within the BJP. Indeed it is claimed that in many
places the RSS and VHP made no effort to support BJP candidates to teach
the BJP leaders, especially Atal Behari Vajpayee a lesson. It may be a
different story should the Manmohan Singh government collapse in some months.
One can only wait and see. Miracles can occur. The Congress still might
last out a term. But it is hard to be optimistic.