Congress Undemocratic Ideology - 4

[ramana]

Op-EdPioneer, 30 Aug 2010

EDITS | Monday, August 30, 2010 | Email | Print | | Back





The curse of Sisyphus



Balbir Punj



Manmohan Singh may be the third longest-serving Prime Minister but that means little for India which faces a crisis of leadership



What is the reason behind the hoopla over Mr Manmohan Singh becoming the third longest-serving Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Mrs Indira Gandhi, overtaking Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s record of years in office? Is there any doubt that Mr Singh has been in office but without any real power all these years? Despite the number of years as Prime Minister to his credit, Mr Singh, as Mr HD Deve Gowda, will be no more than a mere footnote in India’s political history.



The daily exposé by the media of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption in projects related to the Commonwealth Games only emphasises the shocking truth — no one is in control of the Government today. The Prime Minister, of course, pretends to be far away from — and above — the mess that has come to prevail.



Bushfires rage around us. The Kashmir Valley is once again in turmoil. Pakistan-sponsored jihadis are fortifying their stronghold in Kerala with the Marxist Chief Minister admitting that their intention is to Islamise the State. A third of India’s districts are now virtually under the control of Maoist insurgents.



Analysts are surprised that as Prime Minister of the country, Mr Singh is yet to utter a single word on these crises. Of course, the traditional Red Fort speech and his address to the people of the Kashmir Valley have been exceptions. But where his leadership is most needed — that is, in Parliament — he is disquietingly silent. For all Government initiatives and statements, the Congress looks at Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.



Negotiations with the Opposition on sensitive issues like the nuclear civil liability Bill, recording of caste in Census and the fiasco over the Commonwealth Games preparations have been handled by Mr Mukherjee. The nation hears from the Prime Minister only at events to launch books and other such occasions of no national consequence.



Meanwhile, the media provides more and more coverage to the Congress’s heir apparent. On the occasion of the UPA2 Government completing one year in office, the only major question at Mr Singh’s Press conference was on the Prime Minister-in-waiting. That the question was asked and the answer was a total confession shows where lies real power.



If the ruling party itself is sending a message to the nation to ignore the man occupying the Prime Minister’s office, why blame the people for giving the lowest marks to Mr Singh, as they did in a recent country-wide survey conducted by a national weekly? It is no wonder that the Congress keeps Mr Singh confined to the Rajya Sabha and makes no move to get him elected to the Lok Sabha, since that would strengthen his authority and stature.



The result of the diarchy in the ruling party is that the Union Government is seen as losing its grip on national affairs. In dealing with terrorism and Pakistan, we have recently witnessed the sorry spectacle of Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi snubbing his Indian counterpart and Mr SM Krishna accepting it in humble submission. The Prime Minister, meanwhile, seems to have been extending an olive branch to what is universally considered a weak civilian Government in Islamabad.



Notwithstanding New Delhi’s claims that Washington, DC has been rolling out the red carpet for our Prime Minister whenever he visits the American capital, Mr Singh does not seem to carry any clout with the Obama Administration. The US President has signed a law authorising a steep increase in fees for H1 B and L1 visas, thereby dealing a heavy blow to our IT and IT-enabled services industry.



Even a cursory look at headlines in the American media would show that the major focus of the Obama Administration is on West Asia, AfPak policy, tensions between China and South Korea and Japan, and North Korea with its nuclear-tipped missiles.



The absence of a determined leadership in New Delhi is clearly witnessed in the failure to break the vicious cycle of stone-pelting and police firing in Srinagar and elsewhere in the Kashmir Valley. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah seems to have lost the battle even before it began; the protesters are indifferent to his appeals for peace and legislators, including those from the Congress, appear to have no control over the people who elected them.



When a majority of the people in the Valley, who may not be supporting the stone-pelting separatists, see their Government lacking in leadership, they are bound to lapse into silence or let the separatists take charge of the situation. That is at the heart of the crisis there.



Ironically, the Congress is reluctant to learn from its own history. In the 1960s, when the Prophet’s holy relic kept at the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar went missing, the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, swiftly moved into action, deploying both political and administrative skills. The relic was found and peace restored; mischief was nipped in the bud.



The UPA2 Government presents a picture of a deep schism within. The recent tiff between the Union Minister for Finance and the Union Minister for Railways on how to deal with the Maoists is typical of the confusion and discord that prevail in the Government. This is further underscored by the spat between Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh.



Decisive leadership is the need of the hour. But what we see today is a weak Government whose word is not taken seriously by anybody. Everybody knows that the Prime Minister lacks authority and hence cannot decide for the Government he heads. It’s a pity that the nation must suffer the crisis of leadership in so helpless a manner.



(punjbalbir@gmail.com)