October 14, 2002
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Money > Special October 14, 2002 |
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Riding piggyback on a soft OppositionAditi Phadnis in New Delhi In the third year of Rajiv Gandhi's prime ministership, despite a Congress majority of 400-plus MPs in a House of 525, Rajiv Gandhi's own youthfulness and popularity, and notwithstanding his government's serious stab at administrative reforms, mohallas all over India were resounding with the slogan: 'top-chor.' In the third year of P V Narasimha Rao's prime ministership, while still being the secular republic of India, the South Block had begun receiving sadhus and sants for negotiations on the Ram Janmabhoomi, so badly weakened was the government by the Opposition onslaught after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Rao's unique numerical experiments with the truth on the floor of the Lok Sabha had won a working majority for him. But in the third year of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government, despite being a coalition of 26 political parties and having a marginal majority in Parliament, never has a government's performance been so dismal and never has the pressure from the Opposition been more feeble. In other words, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government is functioning (certainly not performing) largely because of the Opposition's softly-softly approach to political assault. What should the Vajpayee government be proud of? The year 1999-2000 saw the tail end of the Kargil war, credit for the management of which must be shared between foreign minister Jaswant Singh and the United States of America. It was in pursuance of its own interests that President Bill Clinton's India (and Pakistan) visit put in place an architecture for the Indo-US relations, wiping out in large measure, the bitterness caused by the 1998 nuclear tests. The earthquake in Gujarat in January 2001 witnessed world sympathy on a scale that was unprecedented. Unfortunately, these gains were rapidly frittered away after the hopeless mismanagement of the Gujarat riots fallout, exposing to public view India's worst kept secret - that the BJP doesn't know how to govern. Reports of differences between the Prime Minister and the President, the sacking of a Chief of Naval Staff in a highly publicised polemic, the dismissal of the Bihar government without having any idea what to do next, and the appointment of a parallel non-official envoy to the US, were a few earlier examples. Supposed differences between the RSS and the BJP was more grist to the mill. Dream budgets turned into political nightmares and the party lost election after election in the states. The Delhi local bodies election in March this year saw the BJP trounced even in areas it considered its pocket boroughs. This pattern is repeating itself in the controversy on divestment. The BJP rushed to shut stable doors after the horses had bolted by issuing statements on how, for instance, performing public sector undertakings had driven up the Sensex. Worthy arguments, but shouldn't they have been spelled out earlier as the offensive argument for liberalisation and divestment, rather than its defence? Cabinet reshuffles and expansions - one way of ensuring performance - were options least utilised by the government. The last Cabinet reshuffle undertaken by the prime minister was the end result of a month-long referendum on who should be in government and who should be kept out. Forget an evaluation of individual ministers' performance, there was no attempt at an administrative slash-and-burn exercise that would have ensured tighter administrative control and a lean, slim government. The Vajpayee government is rapidly getting the reputation of being nothing more than a long holding exercise, with nothing much to show at the end of it. It launched itself as the government that does what it says (jo kehte hain woh karte hain). It should add a rider: "But only under pressure." ALSO READ:
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