*** Let us assume for a moment that Tavleen Singh is exaggerating. But could it be much? And if not, if even half of it is for real, does it bode well? Is it surprising? Is it unusual?
No wonder therefore, how GoI is clueless about how to deal with the ULFA 'problem' ( see http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1823732.cms ). cm The Sense of Drift ON THE SPOT Tavleen Singh Sometimes you need to go away from Delhi to notice the subtle political changes that occur under a seemingly normal surface. The bombings in Mumbai and travels in foreign lands kept me away from this city for a few weeks, and when I returned last Monday on the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, I found the political mood quite changed. It is more despondent than it has been in years. Where there was till a few weeks ago a sort of cheerful sense of political drift with people joking about how India's maximum progress always happened under weak prime ministers, there is now real despondency. It comes from the growing sense that nobody is in charge of the government, that governance has ground to a standstill. In the words of a usually perceptive analyst, ''It is clear that the Prime Minister is not in charge, quite clear just from the number of his ministers who publicly defy him. But, if you conclude from this that Sonia Gandhi is the real boss, you would be wrong because it is becoming increasingly clear that she is not running the government either. All she does is intervene on behalf of those NGOs she hangs out with.'' Her interventions have resulted in two or three clear initiatives. The Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Right to Information Act and the possibility of a law that will give Adivasis the right to own forest land. On the terrible bombings in Mumbai, her only response has been a midnight flying visit to that city. On the almost civil war-like situation created by Naxalite violence, we have had no response at all, and on the subversion of the Prime Minister's authority by ministers whose loyalty to her is unquestionable, we hear not one single word. Instead of helping her handipicked Prime Minister, she has lately taken to publicly berating him. She did not like the price of fuel going up, and objects to prices going up in general; so she could have called him to 10 Janapath for a quiet cuppa and a chat, but chose instead to write him letters that mysteriously found their way into the hands of journalists. Aha, they said, she does not like him any more. Then came rumours that he was on the verge of handing in his resignation. When Arjun Singh, a loyal servant of the Gandhi family, chose to make mischief for the Prime Minister by raising the controversial and divisive subject of caste quotas, she could have distanced hereself from a move she is believed to have had nothing to do with but chose to remain silent instead. Not a wise decision when the Prime Minister is so weak that on something of such serious national concern as terrorism, he dithers. After the Mumbai bombing, he made a strong statement about Pakistan's inability to control terrorist violence, but within hours he was pussy-footing and backtracking. By doing this, he ended up strengthening Pakistan which, while we drift rudderless, seems to go from strength to strength and certainly from failed state to emerging economy. According to a recent special report in the Economist, the Pakistani economy ''has been transformed'' in the past six years. ''In the Financial year to mid-2005, it grew by 8.6%, the highest figure for two decades, followed by a 6.6% rise in the financial year just ended. The stock market index in Karachi has risen by over 1,000 since 1999. Pakistan has $13 billion in foreign reserves up from $1.7 billion in 1999.'' In other words, it is strong enough economically to wage with renewed venom its covert war against India. In other words, we cannot afford to have a government that is not governing. In other words, we cannot afford to have a government that thinks caste quotas are more important than economic reforms and terrorism. In other words, we cannot afford to have a Prime Minister who appears so unnervingly weak. The sense of drift at the highest political levels is exacerbated by the tragic reality that our main opposition party has reduced itself to a bad joke. Last week, as usual, the Bharatiya Janata Party prevented Parliament from functioning and took to the streets to beat empty vessels and gongs outside Rashtrapati Bhawan to protest against rising prices. Surely, if they were really concerned about something that never pinches them personally, they would have done better to demand a debate in the Lok Sabha and contribute to it effectively by pointing out why they think prices are rising for artificial rather than real reasons. The BJP has spent nearly all of its years as a political party on the opposition benches, so you would think they would understand intimately the tactics of being an effective opposition party; but it seems that all it took was six years on the treasury benches for them to forget. How else can we explain their inability to understand that terrorism, Naxalite violence and the nuclear agreement with the United States are national issues that require serious debate and not politicization? So, the only good news from Delhi at the moment is that the rains have finally come, but cloudy skies make a fitting backdrop to the atmosphere of gloom that pervades political and government circles. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
