HVK Archives: Common Minimum irresponsibility
Common Minimum irresponsibility - The Indian Express
Shekhar Gupta
()
12 April 1997
Title : Common Minimum irresponsibility
Author : Shekhar Gupta
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : April 12, 1997
After Rajiv Gandhi's betrayal of the promise of 1985, India has learnt
not to expect too much from its politicians.
But even by their dismal standards their behaviour now has been nothing
short of treasonous. A government has been toppled in the budget
session and one of the busiest foreign policy seasons ever on
grounds-mostly unstated in today's debate-that would make Alice in
Wonderland seem like serious business.
Under P.V. Narasimha Rao, the Congress did a lot that was wrong. But
never in the history of India's Grand Old Party has there been an
instance of such crass, unthinking irresponsibility. Unthinking, because
it is tough to see what it could gain from this. Even if it manages to
inveigle its way into a new coalition, it would only hasten its
political last rites. A sombre thought: this has come on a day when
India has been listed 142nd on the World Development Index, its ranking
falling even lower than that of its miserable football team, rated 121st
on the same day.
Unfortunately, even for a newspaper as fiercely committed to
parliamentary democracy and liberal tradition as this one, it is
difficult to see hope elsewhere. At least, Atal Behari Vajpayee, who
skilfully tried to lay the foundations of a future BJP-led coalition,
underlined the nub of the tragedy, the inability of the Indian
politician to come to terms with the kind of give-and-take and sharing
of responsibility coalitions necessitate. Possibly, as demonstrated by
the Congress now and in 1991 and Vajpayee's own party in 1989, you
cannot share responsibility of governance without sharing power. But
must you then be so irresponsible? And why must we put up with it?
If you were a cynical ex-MP hanging on to a one-acre bungalow in New
Delhi, you would now troop to your favourite guru, astrologer or deity,
rehearse old lies and hope that yet another mixed verdict would keep you
in business. Spare a thought for the poor Indian who will still go out
voting at the peak of summer for the second successive year. Accustomed
as we are to calamities and catastrophes, we have a high level of
tolerance, particularly when it comes to our rulers because they have
never given us much anyway. But even this has its limits.
The least this disgraceful horde of MPs, particularly those in the
ruling coalition and its "unconditional" supporters from outside, owe to
their nation is that they now minimise the damage their adventurism
would inevitably do. At least, pass the Budget, and quickly, find a way
of maintaining the foreign policy momentum even if it means learning
from Pakistan whose democracy we once held in such superior,
self-righteous scorn. The least this country expects of its politicians
in the days to come is a charter of Common Minimum Irresponsibility.
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