Author: C P Bhambhri
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: January 21, 2006
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1380143.cms
Introduction: The office of the PM in the
UPA government has been seriously devalued. Dr Singh is shouldering responsibilities
without real power and Sonia Gandhi has power without responsibility.
Parliamentary democracy in England or Canada
or Australia has in reality become a prime ministerial government and the
office of the PM has evolved from the status of primus inter pares or first
among equals to the present position of the leadership of the Cabinet and
elected House of Parliament.
The council of ministers is collectively responsible
to the elected House of Parliament, but in reality the writ of the PM runs
over all the members of his Cabinet. Not only this. The PM can ask for the
resignation or even the dismissal of a dissident member of his council of
ministers because appointment of a minister is his sole prerogative. The PM
can act as an unquestioned leader of his council of ministers if he enjoys
the unquestioned political authority over his own party.
Unfortunately, Dr Manmohan Singh is a PM nominated
by Sonia Gandhi, who is the real and unquestioned leader of the Congress party
which is leading the UPA government at the Centre. Dr Singh is not even a
light weight leader of the Congress; the real repository of power is Sonia
Gandhi who is the president of the Congress and the chairman of the National
Advisory Council. Not only this, every coalition partner of the UPA looks
towards her as the final arbiter of disputes or differences between the Congress
party and its coalition partners.
The Communist parties, supporting the Congress-led
UPA government from outside, look towards Sonia for their coordination with
the Dr Singh-led government.It is noteworthy that Pranab Mukerjee, or P Chidambaram
or Arjun Singh, or Kamal Nath of the Congress party care for the opinions
and wishes of the PM because Sonia Gandhi, the supreme leader of the Congress,
is supporting Dr Singh in his present position.
The Congress CMs too look towards Sonia Gandhi
and not Dr Singh, for guidance, advice, instructions and orders. It is Sonia
Gandhi who decides to hold meetings of Congress CMs and they have to explain
their record of activities to her and not the nominated PM. A telling example
is provided by the manner in which Natwar Singh, the former external affairs
minister, was made to 'quit' the Cabinet because Sonia Gandhi had got annoyed
with her own favourite minister in the Volcker Affair. Natwar Singh was shown
the door not by Dr Singh, but by Sonia.
The upshot of the above description is that
the PM has no authority or freedom to exercise his real prerogative of either
appointing a minister or in asking for his resignation. The Congress party
representatives in Dr Singh's Cabinet can continue at the 'pleasure' of Sonia
and not on the basis of choice or goodwill of the PM. The essential point
to be noted here is that Dr Singh is shinning in the reflected glory of Sonia.
He is in office because of his 'loyalty' to Sonia.
Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi or Rajiv
Gandhi or Narasimha Rao or Atal Bihari Vajpayee were not only PMs in their
own right, they controlled the party organisation. Complete support of a party
is a precondition for becoming a PM in a parliamentary democracy. It is not
without reason that Jawaharlal Nehru threatened to resign from the CWC if
Purushottam Das Tandon continued as party president. The clash and conflict
between these two personalities was resolved in favour of the PM and the party
president was made to quit his elected office.
Indira Gandhi decided to 'split' the Congress
party in 1969 when the party president Nijalingappa had ganged up against
her on the choice of the party nominee for the post of President of India.
Indira Gandhi again 'split' the party in 1978 because a powerful section within
the party was 'hostile' to her. In fact, every Congress PM, except Dr Singh,
had been either the unquestioned and unchallenged choice of the party or managed
and manipulated party support in his/her favour.
A PM has to 'control' his party for his authority
to be fully accepted by every minister in his Cabinet. Indira Gandhi fought
against her opponents within the party because her authority as PM would have
been completely diluted, even eroded, if she had allowed parallel or 'dual'
centres of power. It is not without reason that V P Singh or Chandra Shekhar
or H D Deve Gowda or I K Gujaral could remain PMs only for a very short period
because none of them had either firm support of a party or a coalition of
parties.
Mr Vajpayee could remain PM from 1998 to 2004
because he was fully supported not only by the BJP but also other coalition
partners. In other words, a PM is effective only on the basis of his own political
strength within the party of which he is the leader.
Dr Singh is not the leader of the Congress
or of the UPA and hence he cannot lead the council of ministers. It has been
observed that every pubic controversy involving the UPA government is resolved
by the active intervention of Sonia Gandhi and not the PM. He does not have
any role in the party's internal affairs because Sonia has the real power.
The functioning of the government is also affected by such an unnatural 'dual
control system' because every party or group in the UPA looks towards Sonia
for the final word.
The Left parties had walked out and boycotted
the coordination committee meetings in the middle of 2005 because they had
developed serious differences with the UPA government on economic policies
of liberalisation, globalisation and privatisation and it was Sonia Gandhi's
intervention which bought back the Left to the co-oordination committee meetings.
Sonia Gandhi's National Advisory Council carries
more weight in decision making than Dr Singh and it had become clear on the
issue of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information
Act 2005.It deserves to be reiterated that the office of the PM in the UPA
government has been completely devalued. It is not only that Dr Singh owes
his job to Sonia, all Congress ministers look towards Sonia for their continuation
in office. Sonia has power without responsibility and Dr Singh is shouldering
responsibilities without real power.
