Author: Tavleen Singh
Publication: www.expressindia.com
Date: June 6, 2004
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=32196&headline=Yes~Madam,~No~Madam,~All~right~Madam:~PM
Introduction: Though Sonia so graciously
handed the reins of power to Manmohan, we still see more of her than we
do of him
Are you as confused about who rules
India as I am? Puzzled that although Santa Sonia, our Lady of Renunciation,
so graciously handed the reins of power to her chosen subordinate, we still
see much more of her than we see of him. Since the new government took
office we have had two foreign ministers visit Delhi and where did they
head? Number 10 Janpath. They appear not to have noticed that the Prime
Minister of India is a man by the name of Dr Manmohan Singh. When our friendly
neighbourhood military dictator wanted to continue the dialogue initiated
by the Vajpayee government, he also seemed not to notice that it was bad
protocol to invite the Congress president to Pakistan when the Prime Minister
is someone else.
Our new Minister of External Affairs
saw nothing wrong with the invitation and announced, in Jodhpur of all
places, that Signora was indeed likely to accept. When Rahul and Priyanka
went to Pakistan, said faithful flunky Natwar, there was a crowd of 50,000
people to receive them. So imagine what will happen if Mrs Gandhi goes.
It's not just in matters of foreign
policy that you notice the Prime Minister's absence. It is everywhere.
When the DMK went into a sulk, it was to 10 Janpath they turned, when the
Left parties have something to discuss, it is there they go, when the common
minimum programme is to be proclaimed, it is Sonia who we see waving it
at us on television.
Alas, us political pundits are equally
absorbed with everything that she does down to every last unimportant detail.
When was the last time you read a piece about Dr Manmohan Singh's sartorial
tastes? Me, I read 20 newspapers a day and in not a single one have I come
across references to how neatly pressed his white kurta-pyjama is or how
carefully starched his blue turban. But on a daily basis I read about Sonia's
''immaculate'' attire and sickening passages like the following description
of the Gandhis on their first day in the new Lok Sabha: ''Dressed in simple
cotton kurta-pajama, Rahul sat amongst not so well known Congress MPs wearing
the most matter-of-fact look studying the ambience in the House. His brown
leather Hawaian sandals matched the brown tinge in his hair. Sonia and
her son are going to be a memorable feature of this Lok Sabha.''
There is something about the Gandhis
that has always (except briefly during the Emergency) inspired this kind
of sycophantic drivel in even seasoned hacks, but I have to say that there
has been more around lately than ever before. It's as if every major newspaper
has assigned their gossip columnists to cover politics. What is worse is
that nearly every serious political columnist has also bombarded the reading
public with paeans of praise to our Lady of Renunciation. My problem is
that I appear to be among a small handful who do not see any renunciation.
Quite the opposite. It seems to me that Sonia has managed to put herself
in the wonderful position of being all powerful without any accountability.
In legalese, her position would be described as an ''extra-constitutional
authority''.
This leads already to ugly gossip
and rumours in the corridors of power. They say that senior bureaucrats
are trotting off to 10 Janpath to brief her. If this is true and if they
get found out, they could be sacked for breaching their oath of office.
They say also that the ''renunciation'' was inspired not so much by that
inner voice but by cold calculation and that elections will be held in
the next two years, when if the new saintly image and another spate of
'road-shows' work and the Congress pulls in more than 200 seats, renunciation
will be reconsidered for the sake, of course, of saving India.
It is about the only interesting
thing about the new government. The rest is a movie we have all seen before.
Natwar Singh talks as if the Cold War never ended and the Soviet Union
was still there to protect us from the evil Americans. He talks of reviving
NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) when the word alignment has itself become irrelevant
to foreign policy.
From Arjun Singh we have had the
expected noises about ''saffronisation'' without anyone telling us what
exactly the Vajpayee government did other than kick out a club of leftist
historians who had a monopoly on history textbooks. If Marxists can write
textbooks according to their worldview in West Bengal, why should the BJP
not be entitled to do the same?
On economic matters we hear the
same voices that we heard in our bad old socialist days. They are as confused
as ever. So privatisation is again a dirty word and we talk instead of
restructuring loss-making public sector companies on which the last government
already spent more than Rs 40,000 crore and failed. If the new government
succeeds then they will not be sold anyway because of the decision not
to sell profitable companies. We have the worst airports in the world but
they will not be sold either even if selling them improves their functioning
and earns the government some desperately needed money to invest in the
social sector.
Speaking of which it is once more
back to ''socialist'' business as usual, which means there will be constant
talk of ''the poorest of the poor'' without anything being done ever to
improve their wretched lot. As I said it's a movie we have seen before
except for the interesting situation of having a de jure prime minister
and a de facto one. Now that is truly a new idea.
