VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
It was a birthday celebration
sans any fanfare as the UPA limped to complete four years in its second avatar.
With a series of scams behind it and elections staring it in the face, even the
die-hard supporters of Congress wore a forlorn look as the future looks
uncertain.
In the last four years, people
would be hard pressed to recall any significant policy that would be a game
changer for the battle of 2014 which could even be fought towards the end of
2013 given the dynamics of politics at the regional level. The battle of 2009
was fought in the backdrop of schemes like MANREGA and loan waiver to the
farmers; schemes which helped consolidate its vote bank in the rural areas.
Now when elections could be held
anytime within the next 11 months, all which the government and Congress
spokesmen cite as achievement is direct transfer of subsidies. The scheme is
yet to take root and the minuses and scams of the last four years simply
outweigh this small administrative step. Perhaps a few in the Government think
that the proposed Food Security Bill or the Land Acquisition Bill would be a
panacea for all the ills plaguing it. But remember, most of the State
Governments are already giving rice and wheat at `1 to `2 a kg and the fatigued
voters are not going to buy this scheme. Similarly, however liberal the Land
Acquisition Bill may be, it will benefit only a small section of the
population.
The fourth anniversary bash of
the UPA (read Congress) took place at a time when something which everyone
suspected all along became public knowledge. Every voter in the country
suspected that CBI was used to fix political opponents and help the ruling
party members. The affidavit of the CBI chief in the Supreme Court confirmed
this and in Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, the government found a scapegoat. He
was shown the exit door. But this is not a case of a simple resignation. It was
the case of an institution losing its face before the public and a crisis of
credibility which the premier investigation agency faces. Now, no one would
even ask whether the CBI was taking briefs from the Government all these nine
years. People know that this was the case.
They would also suspect the
investigations of CBI in each and every case where politicians are involved,
mostly of the Opposition parties.
Not only CBI, another institution
Railways-came under intense scanner ahead of UPA’s anniversary bash. Earlier,
one had heard that posts of clerks and assistant station master were sold to
the highest bidder by the Railway Recruitment Boards. But this was the biggest
of them all as a member of the Railway Board was caught giving bribe to the
nephew of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal for a choice posting which
involved purchases to the tune of crores. As the glare has shifted to
corruption and betting in the IPL, there are no updates on the investigations
in the Railgate. No one would buy the argument that a board member would deal
with a private person and give him money unless he is sure that his work would
be done.
Whatever Bansal does and however
hard he tries, it will only be CBI’s benevolence which can absolve him from the
case. Given the way law enforcement agencies work and the way governments have
an influence on it, give the case to Gujarat Police or the Punjab Police, they
will immediately find the links reaching up to the former Railway Minister and
Chandigarh MP.
When the third birthday bash was
organised in 2012 for the UPA, it had three dozen more MPs to count on. A year
down the line, big brotherly and arrogant attitude cost it dearly as it lost
Trinamool Congress and the DMK in the process without adding any new ally.
Samajwadi Party, on whose support the survival of Government depends, is
threatening the UPA day in and day out. It did not even take part in the bash.
Ruling party bosses know that both SP and the BSP are supporting the government
with the stick of the CBI looming large not because of its policies and
programmes which they criticise every other day.
After nine years, the Government
seems to have lost its way and does not know which way to go. It looks tired
and haggard. Fatigue has set in and so has the death wish.
The economist Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh is best remembered as Finance Minister of the country in PV
Narasimha Rao Government over 20 years ago for bringing radical changes in the
economy. For posterity, he would have to explain why his expertise in economics
failed to lift the economy of the country in the last few years. Despite being
the only economist Prime Minister of the country, he would be hard pressed to
list the achievements on the economic front.
The fiasco of the government is
on several fronts but undoubtedly corruption tops the list. Bansal episode was
only the latest one definitely not the last for the beleaguered Government.
Commonwealth Games scam, 2G spectrum allocation, Coal-Gate, Tatra truck scam,
helicopter scam, cash-for-vote scam, Adarsh scam, Satyam scam…the list is only
growing.
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is
synonymous with indecision, inability and silence. Never in history has the
institution of the Prime Minister been at the receiving end of wit, sarcasm and
ridicule. The legitimacy of the office of the Prime Minister has been denuded,”
Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said. You may or may not
agree with the politics of BJP, but Jaitley hit the bull’s eye with the
statement. The term “policy paralysis” for the Government has stuck.
The way the Government handled
the protests led by Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev is still fresh in the memory.
Then when protests broke out throughout the country, following the brutal rape
of a 23-year-old Delhi girl in a
bus, the Government was found wanting in the way it dealt with the students and
the protesters.
The handling of the Maoists in
the last nine years too left a lot to be desired. The confusion was apparent
when P Chidambaram was the Home Minister and Congress general secretary
Digvijay Singh questioned the tough approach of the Government. The same
Maoists, against whom Digvijay Singh wanted a soft approach, have struck with a
vengeance, assassinating the top leadership of the party in Chhattisgarh. Soft
peddling and speaking with divergent views on the grave problem will only
embolden the mass killers. It was time for a decisive action, something a
Government undergoing “policy paralysis” won’t undertake. A section of Congress
leadership in the Naxal-hit State
As the UPA entered election year,
the report card has been rather gloomy, bereft of any achievement-anything
which the people could remember when they go out to vote in the general
elections. Will the Government pull out a rabbit from its hat at the last
minute? It seems unlikely. (May 27, 2013)
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