Author: R. Balashankar
Publication: Orgnaniser
Date: September 12, 2004
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=40&page=2
If the first 100 days of the Manmohan
Singh government hit headlines only for the wrong reasons, the Congress
has only itself to blame. Its other partners in the United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) of course, only worsened the situation.
The communist predicament is understandable.
It is no secret that they are not happy with the government and its policies,
and are sustaining it only to keep the BJP out of power.
They also know that the parliamentary
presence they have achieved this time is the highest ever, and to keep
the same level in any future election is not easy. And practically three
states and one department in the Central Government are under their total
control. The removal of A.K. Antony from chief ministership in Kerala was
at the behest of the communists.
This is the first Congress experiment
in diarchy, with the powers vested in the party chief and the Prime Minister
acting as her dummy. Remember the pathological Congress hatred for anybody
else other than the Prime Minister holding the post of the party chief?
Even the allegedly democratic Jawaharlal Nehru could not tolerate this.
But now, Dr Singh has to tolerate it, rather, Sonia Gandhi is allowing
him to represent her.
All these days, the only area in
which the Prime Minister has expressed his definite opinions is on the
Indian Administrative Service. He has, fortunately, a clear idea as to
how the personnel are to be selected, trained and their tenure fixed to
boot. He also asked his secretaries not to use abbreviations (often to
mislead) in the official notes, particularly concerning the economic ministries.
So far so good.
Another area of his concern was
the disruption of Parliament by the Opposition. That serious debates could
not take place in Parliament because of Opposition belligerence is only
part of the truth. The Parliament debate is more a casualty of the committee
system, introduced when Shivraj Patel was Lok Sabha Speaker. Every ministry
traditionally has a consultative committee. Along with this, the Standing
Committees have taken away all the charm of the parliamentary debate from
the citizen's point of view. There is a scramble for positions in the Standing
Committees, which are semi-ministries, and their chairmen, demi-ministers.
All important dealings are made
in these committees, and often they are headed by persons, the subject
of which is not their forte. Here it is convenient for the government to
manipulate the Opposition.
That is why we do not hear any debate
on economic issues either in Parliament or in the media. Ever since we
introduced the capitalist system of economic management, the line of divide
has become really narrow.
So the visible faces of the Manmohan
Singh government are confined to a Mani Shankar Aiyar, E. Ahmed, Taslimuddin,
Arjun Singh and Lalu Yadav. These ministers provide comic relief even as
they extract their political price. Lalu and his sixer team provide both
sound and muscle power to the UPA. Competing with them is Mani Shankar,
who graduated from speech-writer to speaker.
Every time he wrote a speech (he
was the principal speech writer for Rajiv Gandhi), the latter had to eat
the crow. Those in the know say that the famous statements-'Kolkata is
a dying city' when Rajiv was making a last-ditch effort to oust Marxists
in West Bengal, 'don't trust people who wear black glasses', that when
Congress was making a comeback effort in Tamil Nadu, and 'Nani yaad dilayenge'
when he was fighting his back-to-the-wall battle against V.P. Singh-all
originated in the fertile pen of Mani Shankar. Every time, his mentor paid
heavily for the Mani foot-in-the- mouth therapy. Only the ensuing Maharashtra
election results will tell us how Mani has served the new master, with
his big-mouthed Savarkar tirade.
Antony, because of his clean image
and stern stand against minority communalism, was for long a red rag to
the CPM in Kerala. Equally, he earned the wrath of the Muslim League and
of a section of the Christian clergy. For, Antony had warned of a Hindu
backlash four years ago, if the minority communities continued to corner
political and economic power in their hands, using their communal clout.
Ever since, Antony was despised at all communal congregations, and a vilification
campaign was launched against him. Even former Congress Chief Minister,
K. Karunakaran and his son Muraleedharan, used this statement of Antony
to settle their political battle with him. Initially Antony had given a
free hand to the officers who were investigating the infamous Marad massacre
where a dozen Hindu fishermen were killed in Muslim terror attack. It was
reported that Muslim League was not happy, that Antony gave a free hand
to the police to arrest culprits, raid the mosque where the weapons were
stored, and made plans to give compensation to the victims' families. The
new regime is fashioned fully to the liking of the church, communists and
the Muslim League.
Four months is no time to judge
a government. Teething troubles are routine in a government formed only
on negativism. A Prime Minister cannot be a puppet on a string for long,
however, much the puppeteer enjoys the game.
