Received from another group....... * National Network For India, *131 - 132 Som Dutt Chambers 1, 5 Bhikaji CamaPlace, N Delhi 110066 Tel 26563394, 26161246 Fax 91 11 26182867 email: [email protected]
*ON THE ONE HAND SOPHISTRY, ON THE OTHER LACK OF SOPHISTICATION IN GOVERNANCE* The amazing performance of the three government ministers at 1.30 PM (16 August 2011) before the national media, explaining the government's arrest of Anna Hazare has demonstrated to the nation as to why the government is totally adrift. It was an exercise in sophistry, obfuscation, downright untruths, fair sprinkling of half-truths and artful dissemblance. What is more amazing is that an extremely sharp and intelligent Home Minister made statements that could embarrass the government for a long time to come. Evidently, the ministers felt that the public whom they were addressing were a bunch of idiots. Going beyond the amazing assertion of the Home Minster that he had no knowledge of the whereabouts of Anna Hazare, here are a few of the evident slips, possibly made out of desperation that no clever lawyer, leave alone the Home Minister of India would have made: Statement: If the public is not happy with the police arrests and actions they should go to the courts. This was repeated so frequently in his statement and in answer to questions that concerned citizens would naturally start wondering whether the constant hint at the option of going to the courts was not an artful ploy to pull the government out of the enormous mess that it had created for itself due to its flat-footedness. Statement: "I repeat that the citizens have the right to take their grievances against the actions of the 'police' to the courts". Very careful wording, in this instance. Not, if they have a grievance or grievances against *government* action, but 'police' action. Statement: Again repeated a number of times that the police acted on their own and all their actions are independent actions and that the government and the Home Ministry had nothing to do with them. This was followed once more with the advice (drummed in ad nauseam) that the public had the right to seek redressal from the courts. Several observations flow from this. Instead of having the courage of its decisions or non-decisions, the government is making the police the scapegoat should things get out of hand. That they used excessive force, or did not exercise mature judgment (arguments that are standard for politicians who incite the public and then step back when the going gets tough and make the police take the rap. The police officer concerned takes the rap quietly, is suspended for a period of time or transferred till the episode is forgotten by the media. Thereafter the concerned officer is rehabilitated and secretly rewarded in other ways for not exposing the cowardly, scheming neta). More importantly, what is the impression that the Home Minister is conveying. That the courts should intervene at the drop of a hat; that the government has abrogated its responsibility. What has happened to the chain of police command, for example in Delhi, Lt. Governor of Delhi who is in charge of the police, what about the Chief Minister? Has the incumbent no role to play. Lastly, what about the Home Minister himself. Is he a mere bystander. If this is the belief in the government of its responsibility, it explains as to why all the actions that were supposed to be in place for buttressing national security after 9/11 have such glaring loopholes. Keep passing the buck to the police and every other agency involved. The government and the Home Ministry have nothing to do with it. Statement: " I assure you that the government has not given *any* directions to the police. They are acting on their "own". God forbid that this statement be true. The situation created by Anna Hazare's proposed fast could in the extreme bring the government down, or at the very minimum damage the Congress Party very badly, besides the loss of credibility. That neither the government nor its main functionary for law and order, nor the Lt. Governor, advised the police stretches credulity to the limit. Nobody believes it, really. The recent case of 13/7 in Mumbai and the unseemly wrangle between the CM and the Maharashtra Home Minister, with the former accusing the latter of not discharging his duty properly puts paid to the strenuous assertion made by the Home Minister and his cabinet colleagues who blithely kept on reinforcing each other's statements. For a moment supposethat they were true, and were the people of India to take the statement at face value, the implications are horrendous. Here is a situation with ramifications that could affect the government and the country and the Home Minister washes his hands of *all* responsibility: "The police will decide,it is for them to make the decisions". Similar dissimulations from the other ministers can be gone into. However, their gravity pales into insignificance compared to the statements referred to above. For the nation it raises fundamental questions about the government's ability to govern or ensure the security of the country. It is inconceivable that nobody in the cabinet had the experience to handle the situation more elegantly. Even the Home Minister is far more able than what emerged at the press conference. The Prime Minister and the cabinet would have been under the impression that the G-4 nominated by the person who appointed the PM in the first place to run the party and the country in her absence would take the critical decisions as ordained. They were out of their depth and hence the hurried interventions of the cabinet. The reason for the maladroit handling that stares the nation in the face is the manner in which the country is presently being governed. In reality all power is in the hands of a foreign person with full authority and near zero accountability. The Prime Minster, as most of the country suspects is not an independent decision-maker. The Economist in a recent issue scathingly referred to the PM as 'the retainer of the Gandhi family'. There was no protest from him or anyone from within the government. Perhaps some hidden mirth on the part of some of his colleagues waiting in the wings to replace him at the behest of the extra-constitutional authority now reportedly convalescing in foreign climes. The country wishes her speedy recovery at a personal level, but for the interest of the country a Supreme Court mandated inquiry should be instituted as to the enormity of the staggering sums that seem to have moved out of the country under the current dispensation and whether it has any chance of being investigated under the same dispensation. For, in essence, that is what the present country-wide agitation is all about. Statement on behalf of NNFI Trustees and Supporters and Advisers. New Delhi 16 August 2011, 10 PM *National Network For India Trust is a movement for good governance * Trustees: Gen.Vinod Saighal, Jai Kumar, Promod Chawla, R K Somany, Samuel Paul, Subodh Bhargava, Tara Sinha. ----------- -- With best wishes S Chander
