VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
Recently, I wrote a column on
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and how lackluster his tenure has been and how
ineffective he has become over a period of time. I also wrote how he has lost
his political relevance in the only state where he could have made a difference
which is Punjab . Another column in a space of just a few
weeks on a similar subject would not have been needed. But the new
circumstances triggered it.
I do not think that even Manmohan
Singh would argue nor would the PMO spokesperson say that he is from Assam
and not from Punjab . No one would believe that he hails
from the north-eastern State even though he has been a member of the Rajya
Sabha for over a decade from there and has obtained a residence proof to get
elected to the Upper House. No one in the country would also believe that he
contributed to the success of his party in Assam
where Tarun Gogoi has done what no Congress leader has managed in recent years
— win three consecutive Assembly polls.
So now when his second tenure has
practically ended, no one in the country would believe that he was ever in
control of the Government, except perhaps for a few weeks when he ensured the
passage of the now irrelevant Indo-US nuclear deal. As no one in the country
would believe if Singh’s spokesperson says that he contributed to the victory
of Congress in his adopted state of Assam ,
similarly they would not believe if told that he actually ran the show from 7
Race Course Road for a decade as per the division
of powers enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
That Singh has no control on
Government and party was the worst kept secret of New
Delhi . Every single MP of Congress, top bureaucrats
and power brokers knew this and so did the journalists who frequent 24
Akbar Road and also sit on the pavements opposite 7
Race Course Road waiting for that elusive bite
after every Congress Core Group meeting. All of them know that 10 Janpath
cleared 2004 and 2009 cabinet formation, reshuffle of Ministers in between, key
appointments, gubernatorial posts and even appointments in the PMO to keep a
tab on the working of the Prime Minister.
The book of Sanjaya Baru, The
Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh has only
confirmed what everybody knew. Apart from stating the obvious, the book has for
the first time come out with graphic details on how the office of the Prime
Minister was devalued in the last 10 years, how the democratic principles
enshrined in the Indian Constitution was flouted with impunity.
The Indian Constitution framed by
the then Constituent Assembly may have comprised mostly Congressmen and women
but it never made the provision that Congress President would be more powerful
than the Prime Minister of the country. This is what happened — we all saw it
and now an insider provides all the details to confirm what we suspected.
The Constitution never provided
that the Prime Minister sign on the dotted line, become a rubber stamp, stop
thinking, abdicate all responsibility and semblance of authority and act subservient to the head of a
political party. If nothing, Dr Manmohan Singh is guilty of violating what has
been enshrined in the Constitution.
Even the President of the
country, though titular head, has the powers to refuse signing a Bill on the
first instance and seek clarifications from the government. The Prime Minister
did not even have this authority in his 10 years in the job. So was he worse
than a rubber stamp? This is what I feel after going through the excerpts of
Baru’s book. As Baru was Media Adviser to the Prime Minister, responsible for
his image management, a key official in the PMO for four years, 2004-08, his
words do carry weight even if the current PMO dismisses his book as fiction or
driven by commercial considerations.
I am wondering what forced a man
like Singh to get reduced to something worse than a rubber stamp. One has to
coin a new phrase for that. After his first tenure, he could have easily moved
on to the Motilal Nehru Marg residence and prevent his honour from getting
sullied. He did not do so. Along with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, clearly
Manmohan Singh too is guilty of not adhering to the principles laid down in the
Indian Constitution. This is extremely troublesome and does not bode well about
the checks and balances in the system.
In the 1970s, Indira Gandhi, the
mother-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, misused her authority and imposed Emergency in
the country. She did this when she saw a political tsunami hitting her
Government in the form of JP movement and discontent due to rising prices,
unemployment, a mismatch between expectations and the reality and the High
Court verdict declaring her election as illegal.
But when Indira Gandhi curtailed
the freedom of everyone, at least the provision of imposing Emergency was there
in the Constitution. She may have been ethically and morally wrong to impose
emergency but followed what had there been enshrined in the Constitution. But
three decades later, what Sonia Gandhi and Congress headed by her did to Singh,
is something which is not there in the Constitution. Clearly, both Sonia Gandhi
and Singh stand guilty of devaluing the Constitution and making arrangement for
sharing a power which was without any legal basis.
It now emerges that it wasn’t
even a dual centre of power arrangement as was widely believed — the only
centre it seems was the Congress President. She and her loyalists decided
everything except perhaps the appointment of Section Officers in the
Government. While Singh was a part of her Secretariat in having a role in the
decisions in his first tenure, he was shunted out from the coterie in the
second tenure.
Baru’s book makes it clear that
Sonia Gandhi was the de facto Prime Minister even though Singh was sworn in for
the job. This was the arrangement from the very beginning and I am sure before
handing over the reins to Singh, he must have been told do’s and don’ts. He
must also be aware of the fate of PV Narasimha Rao, how he initially started as
a rubber stamp, how he gradually emerged from the shadows of 10 Janpath and
stamped his authority.
Singh must also be aware that the
defiance of Rao led to a reaction and he was dumped, a rebellion was engineered
against him and his after his death, he was not given even a stoppage at the
party headquarters and how in the annals of Congress history, he has been
forgotten as if he never existed. (April 16, 2014)
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