Political Diary

New Delhi, 23 May 2009

New Government, New Hope

‘SING’ING ON CREST OF GOVERNANCE

By Poonam I Kaushish

New government, new beginning, new aspirations. The Sardar of Reform has come to power with a big mandate. Of hope and trust. Trust that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will provide baggage-free good governance. Hope that his Government will be honest and accountable. Belief that he will lead India on a path of growth. Will Singh remain King? And sing Main Hoon Na!  

The start has not been smooth. What with a recalcitrant DMK, playing party poopers. Its refusal to join Manmohan Cabinet, after failing to get ministerial berths and ministries of its choice, at least for now, exposed the chinks in the ‘united’ hum saath saath hain armour of the UPA. But it demonstrated a ‘rejuvenated’ Congress’s resolve to chart out a new alliance matrix by refusing to succumb to tantrums and blackmail.

What brought about this assertiveness? One, post it’s over 200-plus MPs, Congress strategists decided to redefine equations by refusing to put up with the unreasonable demands of alliance partners. A repeat of 2004 was a strict no-no. Recall, Karunanidhi flexed his muscles to extract meaty portfolios given the numerical vulnerability of the Congress.  This time around, as the pre-poll allies are fewer, it made plain that it was willing to be pushed to an extent and no further to keep its partners in good humour. At the same time it drew a lakshman rekha on meeting unreasonable demands.

Two, for the first time the Prime Minister exercised his right of being first among equals in his Cabinet, notwithstanding the fact that the Congress does not have the stand-alone numbers to govern. That he is no push-over was made plain by his choice of Ministers. Governance, for him, is not about re-arranging chairs but weeding out non-performers and rewarding competent colleagues. Faced with his new mood of assertiveness, the NCP and NC fell in line. Forgotten was Omar Abdullah’s diatribe that the Congress had failed to observe minimum courtesies.

True, it is not his prerogative to choose the ministers from within his allies but by building a premium around good and honest governance, none can fault Manmohan Singh from trying to keep controversial DMK leaders away from the Government. Specially, the likes T R Baalu and A Raja whose ministerial tenure in 2004 smacked of various scams and were widely castigated for their brazenly rent-seeking style of governance.

What to speak of turning his Council of Ministers into ménage de trios of paternal love. The DMK supremo Karunanidhi wants Cabinet berths for son Azhagiri, daughter Kanimozi (who have no previous administrative experience), grand-nephew Dayanidhi Maran, Baalu and Raja. Along with four Minister of State posts. Arguably, are ministerial berths to be dictated by blood-lines? 

In an attempt to buy peace with its Southern ally, the Congress has now offered three Cabinet and three Ministers of State posts instead of five and six respectively. Ultimately, the DMK has no option but to come around as its State Government’s survival depend on the Congress support. With the aam aadmi’s thumbs down to ram-shackled coalitions making unreasonable demands both Manmohan and Sonia have rightly sought to limit the DMK’s Cabinet quota proportionate to their seats in Lok Sabha. After all, if TMC Mamata has settled for just one Cabinet berth, how can DMK, with less Lok Sabha seats, ask for so many posts in the new Cabinet?

Further, if it surrenders to political blackmail now it would open the Pandora’s Box and embolden other allies like the NCP to ask for more. Reasoned a senior Congress leader, “What is the use of receiving a big mandate from the people if we have to continue putting up with tantrums.” Thus, a confident and reinvigorated Congress has decided to rebuff such attempts, by redrawing alliance matrix by building relationships based on trust and mutual affection, rather than bluff and bluster.

Three, the Manmohan and Sonia-Rahul troika view Verdict 2009 as a mandate to provide good, effective, accountable and honest governance. Asserted the Prime Minister, “I have to run a Government and I also have to worry about its effectiveness.” He definitely does not want a repeat of history when he was taunted by the Opposition for including tainted Ministers, dogged by bad publicity thanks to the antics of testy and recalcitrant allies such as PMK and LJP and being clubbed with Shibhu Soren as “fugitive” when he failed to show up in the Rajya Sabha. Recall, Soren went underground to avoid being arrested in a criminal case.

Four, Manmohan intends making his five-year term into a beacon for the future. He is correct when he asserts: “Our promise for the future will be judged by our performance in the present”. More than the present, he along with Rahul is playing for bigger political stakes in the future.

Towards that end they have crafted a new policy traversing a lonely path which divorces politics from the popularity stakes. Wherein success is viewed not as the number of seats won in the present but a long term policy of rejuvenating and strengthening the Party organization. Bringing true inner party democracy rooted in the ground rather than power flowing from the top. Said Rahul, “it would take over 10 years to rebuild the Party.”

Moreover, by rejecting a ministerial berth, Rahul has signaled that Manmohan Singh is the numero uno.  There will be no backseat driving.  He knows only to well that if he were to join the Cabinet he will become the ‘orbit’ of sycophant Congress ministerial colleagues.  Also, he has indicated his preference, the Party takes precedence over the Government. Plainly, a warning that Ministers should not ignore the workers who put them there.

At another level, what of the BJP? It needs to get its act together if it has to retain its top slot as a national party. Not only has it to grapple with a loss of seats but also vote share, even in States considered to be its strongholds. Besides, it has to learn from its mistaken belief that running an entire campaign based on negativism, devoid of policy and direction and resorting to replaying its high-pitched Hindutva card courtesy Varun Gandhi translates into votes. Instead it put the last nail in its coffin.

Compounding this was Advani’s distasteful personal diatribe against Manmohan Singh which boomeranged and showed an assertive PM giving back as good as he got. To redeem itself now it needs to urgently reinvent itself in order to regain credibility and behave as a responsible and effective Opposition Party.

Ditto the case with the Left in West Bengal. Afflicted by the Hubris syndrome it strove to overreach itself by forming a non-starter Third Front. Worse, ostrich like, it refused to see the writing on the wall in the people’s revolt in Nandigram and Singur and failed to read the masses mood for change offered by Mamata’s Trinamool. As it readies to face its toughest poll battle, the State Assembly elections due in 2011, it no longer can govern by strong arm tactics. It has two years to give up its arrogance and go in for a course correction if it intends retaining its Red bastion. A do or die battle.

In sum, Manmohan’s task is not enviable. The burden on him is enormous. Much is expected of him. Will he be able to deliver? His track record shows that he will. He did so in 1991 as India’s father of liberalization when he pulled the country out of its economic morass. And again in his quite unassuming and able way in 2004-09 when he provided stability to a rickety coalition leading to the Congress’s astounding electoral victory.

Make no mistake. Beneath the velvet gloves is an iron hand. Left to me, I would place my bet on him to deliver. But with a rider: Manmohan Singh should remember and abide by Victor Hugo’s famous saying: “No power can stop an idea whose time has come”. The time has come now. The clock is ticking, Prime Minister. Good governance, accountability and transparency, what gives? ---- INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)