Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: July 9, 2006
It has taken the Indian middle classes just
over 25 months to formally terminate their honeymoon with Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and the UPA Government. The point of endurance had been unacceptably
stretched during the kerfuffle over reservations in April and May but the
flak had largely been directed at Human Resources Development Minister Arjun
Singh. This month, the Rubicon has been crossed.
First, there was the Government's complete
inability to cope with spiralling prices of daily necessities. The attempt
by the Congress to be too clever by half and distance itself from its own
Government also came a cropper. Few, if anyone, bought the ingenuous argument
that consumers were paying more for dal, sugar and tomatoes because the previous
Government erred some four years ago.
Second, the UPA's benign neglect of investment
in infrastructure is beginning to manifest itself in bottlenecks and disruption.
North India has been plagued by power cuts and business in Mumbai has been
disrupted by the failure of successive Governments to upgrade the sewers.
Never mind fulfilling the Prime Minister's
promise of replicating Shanghai, it is now doubtful whether India will be
able to successfully host the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Meanwhile, Rs 40,000
crore is being poured into the cesspool of corruption under the guise of rural
employment because someone wants to appear Lady Bountiful.
Third, the explosion of private agendas is
making governance incoherent. If Arjun Singh's quota game wasn't bad enough,
the past fortnight has witnessed a reckless Health Minister trying to govern
through flights of whimsy. Coalitions have in-built uncertainties but by now
every bit player has chosen to do his own thing. The PMK wants the AIIMS Director
out; the DMK won't countenance a Cabinet resolution on a small divestment
of Nyeveli Lignite Corporation; the I&B Minister is proceeding with legislation
that will make Indian media as "free" as China's; and the Commerce
Minister would rather he wasn't ridiculed by global media for putting football
over WTO parleys.
Even foreign policy, hitherto the Centre's
prerogative, appears to have been outsourced. The CPI(M) is cutting its deals
with Nepali Maoists, with tacit approval of a section of the Government. The
DMK is pressing for a U-turn in India's Sri Lanka policy - a move with catastrophic
consequences. The Muslim lobby has coerced the Government into, yet again,
endorsing the fanatics and suicide bombers in West Asia, over the one country
that has been a consistent friend. And the National Security Adviser is busy
playing the Kerala card in the UN and making India a laughing stock in the
race for the Secretary-General's post.
Finally, the country seems in no mood to digest
all those stories about serial unhappiness at Race Course Road. We heard that
the PM was "unhappy" with Natwar Singh but he, nevertheless, issued
him a clean chit on the Volcker Report. He was "unhappy" that his
HRD Minister started another quota war but he hasn't moved his little finger
to check the future onrush of divisive legislation. And now he is said to
be "unhappy" and "anguished" that the DMK, backed by the
Communists, has made a monkey of all plans to raise resources without imposing
crippling new taxes. So severe was his distress that whereas M Karunanidhi
asked for status quo on Neyveli Lignite, the Prime Minister ended up putting
all divestment on hold.
With this phenomenal explosion of unhappiness,
is it any wonder that every blackmailer is convinced there is a percentage
in keeping Manmohan permanently aggrieved?
In less than a month, India has witnessed
a subtle but important transformation. From a weak Congress-led coalition,
the country has moved into a Third Front Government headed by the Congress.
Those who missed out on the chance of experiencing Charan Singh, Chandra Shekhar,
Deve Gowda, and I K Gujral or, for that matter, Muhammad Shah Rangila, have
their opportunity to relive history.
(Sic) transit gloria mundi.
