archive: Does myopic vision get any worse!
Does myopic vision get any worse!
C R Irani
The Statesman
June 23, 1999
Title: Does myopic vision get any worse!
Author: C R Irani
Publication: The Statesman
Date: June 23, 1999
AFTER her fleeting visit to the base hospital at Udhampur and the
hasty return of her babes in the wood from somewhere near Kargil,
Sonia Gandhi has taken no time at all to come to some startling
conclusions. Some of them have been announced and needless to say
they make little sense. Kamal Nath pronounces himself and his party
fully behind the Government stand on Kargil; it would be folly to
express a contrary opinion even if it suited them. Another of her
underlings saw at once that the situation in Kargil was "serious" -
discerning fellow! Yet another seems to have counted 20,000 refugees
and although it was conceded that relief including foodgrains and
medical aid were being supplied, he wanted money and other material
to be sent. Money is something everybody understands; "other material"
is a mystery, perhaps it will be unfolded before we are very much
older.
It has always been suspected that the temptation to make some kind of
fuss about Kargil has been a high objective with this most scheming
of politicians; her problem has been how to create something out of
nothing. Hence the visit to Udhampur hospital and hence the Congress
delegation to Kargil. Perception is the thing, not substance and by
now she has trained the party to chatter like a bunch of parrots no
matter what she does or does not do. Sycophancy has always been a
Congress trait and the treatment of Sharad Pawar and his two
colleagues, one of whom only recently did a report for her on how to
rejuvenate the party, being the most recent example. It does not seem
to stop. The president of the Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee wants
to suspend the general secretary from the party for six years because
the fellow allows that Sharad Pawar may have a point in urging that
although the lady may continue to be Congress president, it is a
different matter to try to pitchfork her into 7, Race Course Road.
Sonia has been struggling with the problem of how to kick up a fuss
about Kargil. She would like it to be one of those simple or too
clever by half manoeuvres where inconvenient things like evidence and
argument can be avoided. She has at last made up her mind. The
Pakistanis attacked because they came to the conclusion that Atal
Behari Vajpayee was weak. Somebody should ask whether by the same
token the Chinese found her grandfather-in-law to have been not as
strong as he should have been in 1962 and which is why they attacked?
Perhaps the Pakistanis have confided in her that it was only after
March 1998 that they began to make an assessment of Indian strength
and having found a few-week-old Prime Minister weak, started plans
for infiltration. Worse is to follow. Does the lady have an
explanation for Nawaz Sharif's threat on 20 June that more Kargils
can be expected? Can it be the Pakistanis have further concluded that
Vajpayee becomes weaker as Indian troops clear the intruders from
their positions -admittedly at heavy cost? The conclusion that is
thrust upon us is modestly not stated yet but there is no guarantee
that some bright spark committed to her will not try it on and loudly
insist that both China and Pakistan would have laid off if only Sonia
had been in charge. She says she will make an issue out of Kargil;
we do not know what gimmick or stupidity she has up her sleeve, but
make an issue of it she will. We live in interesting times.
Somebody, preferably in the Congress party, should get it across to
Sonia that there are limits to irresponsibility, to gimmickry, to
playing with the sentiments of the nation at a time of crisis. To be
fair to her she is not the only one, only the most foolish of them
all. One-upmanship is not a Sonia Gandhi monopoly. The other day Jyoti
Basu reversed himself and demanded immediate elections because he
thought Atal Behari Vajpayee was handling things well and getting too
far ahead in the political lead. A few days later it was the turn of
the BJP president to make a fool of himself. Sensing the same feeling
as Basu but reacting differently to it, Thakre came to the conclusion
that postponing elections was no problem, it was only a matter of
getting all political parties to sit together and go beyond the
September deadline!
Does myopic vision get any worse than this?
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