PM accused of "distancing" himself from govt in 2G

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Cambridge-educated economist who served the World Bank before ending up as an economist-bureaucrat in the govt of India, has a dubious distinction of effecting a major reform in India's official socialistic policy in 1991, serving as Finance Minister under the Congress Prime Minister, PV Narsimha Rao. In fact,  the loosening of the stranglehold of Licence-Inspector Raj was forced on the govt. by the IMF-World Bank as a precondition for much-needed international loan. However, Manmohan Singh's supporters in the media and elsewhere, never tire of giving him a major share of the credit. They never answer the charge that if Singh was so committed to basic economic reforms, why did he shy away from taking any further initiative in that respect when he became the Prime Minister in 2004 and renominated to the post even in 2009 without fighting the Lok Sabha elections and again getting elected to the Rajya Sabha?

On the contrary, he proved to be a disaster as the weakest, laissez-faire-ist, largely mute, uncommunicative head of govt in the history of independent India. The bitter reality was, as commentd by the London weekly Economist, that Manmohan Singh was in office but not in power. The power was held by the super Prime Minister, Mrs Sonia Maino Gandhi, president of the Congress party and chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance(UPA). He essentially played the second fiddle, merrily. In scam after scam, and crisis after crisis-Prime Minister Singh was hardly in the picture. In the latest 2G spectrum allocation scandal, even when he was informed in writing about the 2G policy his Telecom Minister A.Raja was going to adopt, causing huge losses to the public exchequer, the PM chose not to intervene or stop him! Thanks to the apex court's monitoring, Raja  is now in jail and under trial for corruption and irregularities, allocating the spectrum arbitrarily to his alleged favourites.

According to some new revelations in public domain, made in a Finance Ministry document sent to the PMO on 25 March, 20ll, the then Finance Minister P.Chidambaram could have stopped A.Raja from following the non-auction route if he had wanted, but he chose to go along with his DMK colleague's decision! Following a huge furore in the media and the opposition, the govt., Mrs Sonia Gandhi and the party spokesmen are busy frantically dousing the fires to lessen the damage to their already terribly dented image. After his return from New York, Dr Singh is trying hard to counter the opposition  attack by accusing them of political motives to destabilise the govt and hasten mid-term poll. But, the worst news for Dr Singh is that even his former sympathisers and supporters are abandoning him; they are seeing the ground reality of the PM being a poor, unethical leader who is more interested in "defending" himself  by "distancing" from taking crucial decisions. Writing in the Indian Express(September 28), its respected columnist, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President of the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi, a think-tank, has severely indicted the PM for "distancing the entire structure of ministerial politics by not frontally owning and defending the decision not to auction 2G". He has tried to play "the avoidance game implausibly distancing himself from his own govt". And then, defending Chidambaram and other cabinet colleagues! Is it not hypocritical and duplicitous? Neither here,  nor there?  

Chidambaram's role in 2G and govt's new BPL norm

The UPA government, in its second tenure, starting from May 2009, again under Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, has been a veritable disaster with one scam after another virtually paralysing it. It has caused tremendous damage to India's image. There is hardly any sign of governance; it is mostly fire-fighting-to defend the indefensible. The latest Minister-a senior one-P.Chidambaram who is currently in the line of  fire, was earlier Finance Minister in UPA-1 when the 2G spectrum allocation scandal hit the headlines. No less than the senior-most Minister-Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, No.2 in the Cabinet, has endorsed his Ministry's note to the PMO on March 25, 2011, that his predecessor P.Chidambaram did not assert his authority to scuttle the then Telecom Minister A.Raja's decision to allot the spectrum at 2001 price and not auction it against the advice of the then Finance Secretary, resulting in huge losses to the public exchequer. This note has been submitted to the Supreme Court for examination and action.

In the meanwhile, in the light of this revelation confirming the opposition charge against Chidambaram for the dereliction of duty and failure to stop Raja's manipulative method of spectrum allocation, the demand for his resignation from the Cabinet  has been  reinforced to facilitate a proper probe into his conduct. Yet, in a typically characteristic Manmohanesque style, the PM pleads ignorance to Pranab Mukherjee's note to his office, on the non-application of his predecessor's mind to the crucial matter. He stated this with straight face to a media question on this note during his flight to New York, on September 22.  At the same time, he and his govt. has vociferously come out in defence of Home Minister Chidambaram and his integrity, forgetting the fact that his critics were not doubting his integrity; the questions were being raised about his competence, alertness and serious application of mind. The PM has asked him to keep quiet until the former returns home from New York, and tries to sort out the crisis. In other words, the PM is again indirectly defending himself, because in our democratic system of collective responsibility of the Cabinet, the buck finally stops with the head of the govt; hence, Manmohan Singh cannot escape  his own lack of alertness and intervention to stop the loot of public money!

To add to the misery of the Indian people,  who have yet to emerge from the current crisis of a series of scams,  and the resultant chaos, drift and disarray,  Manmohan Singh-headed Planning Commission has submitted to the Supreme Court a new bench mark of poverty in rural and urban India: Any Indian earning Rs.26 and Rs 32 per day, respectively, is above the poverty line, hence, not entitled to poverty alleviation programmes of the govt! These incredible norms of determining the people below the poverty line (BPL) in these days of stunningly spiralling prices of essential commodities, have been widely condemned as sheer lunacy and insensitivty of the govt, supposedly headed by a world-known economist! Perhaps, the idea seems to be to project a healthy, happy picture of lower  percentage of millions of Indians living below the poverty line!     

Sonia Gandhi's surgery

The Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the chairman of the ruling United Progressive Alliance(UPA), has returned home a few days ago after a surgery in New York that necessitated her absence from the Capital for nearly two months. It was presumably a major surgery requiring long recovery period. But, the most mystifying fact of her ailment was that there was not even a whisper about its nature. The nation was informed only after she had quietly flown to the USA alongwith her son Rahul  and the daughter Priyanka Vadra and admitted to a New York hospital. It was reported in one or two newspapers that Mrs Gandhi was undergoing treatment in a well-known cancer hospital. Even that news later disappeared from the media. Thus, it seemed a well-planned, well-orchestrated strategy to wrap her illness in total secrecy. Amazingly, the Indian media that normally asserts its right of free expression, specially with regard to public leaders, their activities, their health, etc., acted in a coy, conniving and obedient manner.

I privately heard here as well as from a source in Singapore that Mrs Gandhi's ailment was cancerous. The fact that she was in a cancer hospital in New York, although not acknowledged or confirmed officially, was clear enough indication. Yet, the party, the govt., opposition parties and the media, all played the game of secrecy as if it was some rare, unheard of, utterly embarrassing, disgraceful occurence that can't be aired publicly! The media, even now, when Mrs Gandhi has come back, obviously hale and hearty, and, yesterday, presided over the first core committee meeting of his party to approve the second list of Congress candidates for the UP elections scheduled early next year, continued the facade of her "undisclosed" ailment!

Well-being and health of major public leaders is a major concern of  the people everywhere. In a democracy, citizens have the right to know this and the media have the primary duty to inform the public about it. Hence, the conspiracy of silence that was on display is a serious blot on the ruling party, its govt and the national media. 

Latest Bomb Blast at Delhi High Court

Two days ago, September 7, 2011, around 10.30 am, a powerful bomb placed in a briefcase, exploded at the Gate No.5 of the Delhi High Court, nearly 2km away from the Parliament House and the Rashtrapati Bhawan(Presidential Palace), killing 13 and injuring nearly 100 innocent people who had come to the court to seek justice. Wednesday designated as a Public Interest Litigation(PIL)day, the court premises, particularly, the entrance where the bomb was kept, was crowded. The same site had witnessed the first blast-a mild one-in May, four months ago. At that time, counter-terror experts and the media had warned that it could be a dress rehearsal-a dry run-for a bigger, deadlier blast next time. But, the police and the Union Home Ministry that oversees the Delhi police, obviously did not take it seriously. Some TV channels showed one youthful eye-witness who disclosed that he saw one man leaving a brief case near the gate; he immediately informed a nearby policeman about this suspicious small suitcase lying there, but no notice was taken! One High Court lawyer told a TV channel that at the time of the first blast in May, the police was alert and security conscious for two-three days; then, it was back to business as ususal:casual, indifferent and lax. He envisaged a similar attitude even this time.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh government's response was a replay of  the earlier incident:condemnation of "cowardice" of the perpetrators, sympathy for the victims and their families as also an expression of hollow assertion that we will not succumb to the terrorists! There were VIP visits to the hospitals where the victims were being treated. However, the anger against the govt for its repeated failure to provide safety and security to the people against these horrible terrorist attacks was palpable. There were even slogans against Rahul Gandhi by relatives and friends of the injured and the dead, present in the RML hospital.

It is a bitter truth that all the noise that was made by the State and the Central govts following 26/11/08 Mumbai massacre, to strengthen anti-terror infrastructure in the country in order to minimise such terrorist attacks, is just that:a hollow, meaningless noise backed by no action to prevent such deadly incidents. All the promised counter-terrorist and efficient intelligence-gathering entities are no where in the picture. All the bloody terror assaults on our cities-a half dozen or more in which scores of innocents were killed or wounded, still remain unsolved; those involved in carrying out those ghastly acts as well as their master-minds and handlers sitting safely across the border,  have not been apprehended and punished. Nor any heads have rolled in three years of P.Chidambaram's taking over the Home Ministry after 26/11. This clearly insensitive govt and the ruling Congress party, more concerned about vote-bank politics, have chosen not to own moral responsibility for all the killings and casualties that have resulted  from these brutal incidents. Perhaps, another Anna Hazare-type movement is required to channelise the people's anger against terrorism to force the regime into taking strong anti-terrorist  action, or ship it out in the next poll.     

Harassment of Hazare associates

It is no mean tragedy of India that the Congress culture of sycophancy of the ruling Nehru-Gandhi dynasty by its loyalists, and the intimidation of its opponents, that was inculcated during the rule of Mrs Indira Gandhi in the 1970s-pre-and post-Emergency, is very much alive and kicking at present, under the rule of her daughter-in-law Mrs Sonia Gandhi. We have witnessed numerous such instances over the years wherein even Mrs Indira Gandhi's own Principal Secratary Mr Haksar's in-laws-Pandit Bros., who had a well-known shop in the Connaught Place, were not spared during the Emergency. The purpose of raiding them was to give a signal to Mr Haksar who was known to be a critic of Sanjay Gandhi's wayward ways as Mrs Indira Gandhi's favourite son, at that point of time, to behave!

To cut the story short, we had the recent case of Baba Ramdev whose camp was raided by the police past midnight on June 4, 20ll, and his anti-corruption supporters who were sleeping, were forcibly thrown out on the streets, with lathis and tear gas. Ramdev's guilt was that he was leading an anti-corruption and anti-black money crusade against the govt.,  peacefully. The govt did not stop at that. All sorts of Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate investigations were ordered, accusing him and his Trust of amassing hundreds of crores in illegal manner! His pleas of innocence and having submitted all accounts and relevants documents to the concerned authorities, were ignored. The police also launched a witch-hunt against his closest associate Acharya Balkrishan for allegedly getting an Indian passport even though he was a "Nepali", and that too on "fake educational degrees". All these cases are in various stages of investigation and judicial scrutiny.

As in the case of Baba Ramdev who was initially offered a red carpet treatment  by the UPA govt. which sent three senior Ministers to receive him at the airport, and then abusing and hounding him when he did not come around to dance to their tune, Anna Hazare Team witnessed a similar action replay. However, in Anna's case, after initial strong resistance, the govt capitulated when they realised that he had evoked an unprecedented massive nation-wide support from the youth and all classes of Indians, against the scourge of corruption; the govt agreed to his three minimum demands from his bill which were also endorsed by both Houses of the Parliament. The first phase of the anti-corruption campaign, thus, ended with Anna breaking his fast on August 28. After a few days stay in a hospital for recovery, Hazare was back to his village Ralegan Siddhi, to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi with his people.

But, the troubles of his three associates-Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan are beginning, particularly, Kejriwal, Anna's closest supporter. Arvind was an Indian Revenue Service officer working in the Income Tax office. He voluntarily resigned in 2006 to engage himself in social work. For two years, until 2008, there was some correspondence between Kejriwal and his former office regarding some outstanding dues the office was claiming. For three years, until August 5,20ll, there was no further official letter on the earlier claims. But, suddenly on the eve of Anna's fast from August 16, Kejriwal got a fresh letter raising the claims of three year salary not refunded as per the bond before going on the two-year study leave. He refuted that, asserting that he did join the service after the leave and worked for three years as committed in the Bond. He also told the authorities that as a social worker he has no bank balance to pay them. At any rate, whatever amount is due in their calculation, can be deducted from his GPF still with his office. The timing of the official action has naturally given rise to the suspicion of vindictiveness.

Such intimidatory acts of pettymindedness on the part of the ruling Congress are reminiscent of its past practices against its political opponents since long. Unfortunately, its present myopic leadership does not seem to be sensitive to the serious implications of such unethical, mean behaviour that can only further destroy its credibility.     

Prime Minster Manmohan Singh and Anna Hazare's fast

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha(House of the People), the lower House of the Indian Parliament, on August 25, on the issue of Anna Hazare's indefinite fast in support of  his anti-corruption Jan Lokpal bill, expressed his deep sense of hurt over the senior BJP leader Dr Murli Manohar Joshi's "personal attack" on him "as if I am the foundtainhead of corruption". Since I did not listen to the live coverage of the debate, I am unable to comment  on the actual contents and the context in which they were made. But my impresssion is that the opposition attack on the PM  is generally confined to his dismal failure as the head of the UPA govt to provide a responsive, sensitive and competent governance,  ensuring probity and incorruptability. Several scams have hit his govt over a few years, involving thousands of crores of public money; in each case, Dr Manmohan Singh was an indifferent, almost silent spectator, and not a prompt interventionist to stop the rot. No wonder, in the 2G spectrum allocation case and the CWG scandal, the accused, A.Rajan and Suresh Kalmadi, have claimed in the court that all their decisions had the approval of the PMO! The CBI(called by critics as the Congress Bureau of Investigation) and the Central govt took action against the culprits only after the opposition, media and public uproar-and, more importantly, the Supreme Court intervention.

In his August 25 address to the Lok Sabha, Dr Singh stated that "in the course of seven years as Prime Minister, I may have made mistakes. Who is above making mistakes? To err is human but to accuse me of evil intentions, of conniving at corruption, is a charge I firmly repudiate". Dr Singh might have had no "evil intentions" but there is no doubt that he was guilty of overlooking acts of criminality by his cabinet colleagues and other senior bureaucrats. Yes, "to err is human", but to err repeatedly is hardly human; it is criminal negligence.

Anna Hazare anti-corruption agitation captured nation-wide attention from early April, 2011, when thousands of young people responded to his call. The UPA govt after initial resistance and rejection, finally capitulated and agreed to form a Joint Drafting Committee(JDC), including Hazare and four of his associates to prepare an effective, strong  draft Lokpal bill for submission to the Parliament. After two months of discussions in the JDC, between the govt ministers and the Hazare team, the government members and Congress spokesmen started ridiculing the civil society representatives as "unelected and unelectable tyrants" who were out to subvert democracy and the Parliament. They did not remember their commitment to draft a strong Jan Lokpal legislation. After prolonged dithering and no movement for four months and the 10th day of Anna Hazare's indefinite fast in protest against the govt's apathy and arrogance, the PM stated in his speech of August 25 in the Lok Sabha that he was worried about the 74-year-old Gandhian's health. Responding to the PM's "concern", Anna Hazare thanked him and the Parliament for their appreciation of his idealism. But, he added, why this "worry" after so long and without any sense of urgency to resolve the issue, and listen to the voices  of the vast majority of the Indian people for a strong anti-corruption law? Delaying tactics were being used. There was no sign that a unanimous resolution would be adopted to discuss and accept his three minimum demands of having Lokayuts in the States, people's charter and lower bureaucracy to be covered by the bill. Finally, after several flip-flops, under the tremendous pressure of of the anti-corruption movement's vast nation-wide support, most opposition parties and even some Congressmen, the UPA govt. agreed to have an eight-hour debate in the Lok Sabha on August 27 which finally endorsed  Anna Hazare's three points. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, as the leader of the House, replying to the debate, summed up the "sense" of the House as positive, in favour of Anna Hazare's demands. This was widely applauded by the thumping of the deks by the members in place of the voice vote. Later, the PM sent a letter to Hazare conveying the Parliament's consensus; the latter thanked the Parliament and all supporters for what he called "half victory" and broke his fast the next morning(August 29, around  10 am). Thus, the first chapter of this historic people's struggle for clean, honest,  responsive government, has ended. Anna Hazare  mentioned that struggle for reforms in electoral system, including Right to Recall, people's participation in law-making through their elected representatives, education, etc., will begin in the next phase.       

Congress diatribe against Anna Hazare

The ruling Congress party seems to have lost its dignity and mental balance in deciding to mount a rabid diatribe against Anna Hazare personally, calling him corrupt, less than two days before his scheduled fast against corruption and for a strong Lokpal bill. Using its most foul-mouthed, crude,  spokesman to attack Hazare in a language a civilised person will not use even for a street urchin, the Congress party gave the impression of desperation and panic in the face of the rising tide of nation-wide support to the anti-corruption movement of the 74-year-old Gandhian. The Congress foot soldier Manish Tewari tried to flog a dead horse of Justice Sawant's report, allegedly accusing Anna Hazare of various acts of corruption. Tewari clearly devoid of any prick of conscience, used the phrase "A Company" for Hazare and his associates, on the lines of the mafia don Dawood Ibrahim's "D Company".  What one can say about such lunacy and total bankruptcy of ethics and sensitivity! Forgetting traditional Indian ethos of respect for elders, Tewari was deriding  the person who was his father's age and whom his Prime Minister had earlier invited to join the Joint Drafting Committee alongwith his four colleagues for preparing a common draft of the proposed Lokpal bill. The PM had accepted the demand of Hazare under tremendous public pressure despite his initial opposition to the latter's indefinite fast.

Yet, within a few weeks, when the popular agitation receded due to the government's flexible stand, the ruling party reverted to its duplicitous stance and started questioning the legitimacy of the Hazare movement and its demand for a srtong Lokpal. They even attacked the group for being undemocratic and even fascist. The die seems to been cast and the earlier chasm between the two sides was back. First, the police refused the Hazare side permission to assemble at Jantar Mantar to start his fast from August 16 that he had threatened if the Jan Lokpal bill was rejected or its pro-people provisions were not incorporated in the govt bill. Later, the Anna team agreed to shift to any venue in central Delhi. A park named after Jaya Prakash Narayan was offered which they accepted. Then, started another of game of weakening the agitation with all sorts of undemocratic and unconstitutional  conditions like the fast could be only for three days, the attendance cannot exceed 5000, etc. When Anna rejected these conditions instantly and wrote to the PM against the govt's "dictatorial" and emergency-type stand, Dr Manmohan Singh washed his hands of the issue and told Hazare to approach the Delhi police directly as if the police was autonomous. Singh himself forgot what he had said on the Ramdev episode in which the police had used cruel methods to evict the peaceful protestors from the Ramlila grounds:"There was no option" but  the police action!

However, without waiting for the problem to get sorted out amicably, the senseless ruling party unleashed a ferocious assault on its opponent-Anna Hazare. It also forgot that its State govt. of Maharashtra had formed an investigating committee under Mr Sukthanker to examine the Justice Sawant report and it had given Hazare a clean chit. Thus, is it not a fraud on the Indian people to use a rejected report to malign Anna Hazare who is proving a thorn? Does it behove a grand old party of stalwarts like Gandhiji, Sardar Patel, Pandit Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Lal Bahadur Shastri and others? Does it not suggest a terrible degeneration?