Friday, March 22, 2013

Lost it all - Dr. Manmohan Singh


Our present Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is no politician; he is a specialist and an expert on the economic matters. How much proficiency he may enjoy in his area of expertise, he still has to prove politically. People specially, his Congress supporters often quote of his accomplishments of 1991, when he successfully bought economic liberalization in then a sick economy of India but not to forget who bore the political risk at that time. It was no other than the Great prime-minister of the time Shree P.V. Narasimha Rao.

If we turn back History pages we will find that Manmohan Singh had even refused to join Narasimha Rao govt. as a finance minister. When PM had asked reasons, he cited his inability to handle political pressure. Only after Narasimha Rao assured him of complete immunity of political pressure he agreed to join the govt. and later architected economic liberalization model for India.

But the question arises, if it was not Manmohan Singh in 1991 was economic liberalization not possible?

Is Manmohan Singh greatest economist India has ever produced or even a greatest contemporary economist?

Answer is no! There were, and there are many equivalents or even better economists.  So if it was not Manmohan Singh then somebody else would have done the job. India never lacked specialists, they are always available with best solutions but the tragedy has been mainly on political part to execute them. Things like economic liberalization are more a Policy and Polity trouble than that of technical one. If somebody really deserves the credit for the 1991 policy reforms it is none other than P.V. Narasimha Rao who, then, heading a minority govt. sailed through the Economic, Social and Political Tsunami and still completed his full term but ironically hardly anyone from his own party lines, owes him any credit for that.

People often say he (Manmohan Singh) is under credited; he is introvert and blah-blah!!
The reality is far from the truth.
 The main administrative tasks of PM are:
  •      Allocation/Reshuffles of portfolios among different ministers.
  •      Preside over meetings of council of ministers and influence its decisions.
  •      Guide, direct, control and coordinate the activities of his ministers.
  •     Managing the council of ministers as a single entity by way of effective communication and coordination, a conscience maker and a troubleshooter. 
  •     Managing discipline and keeping a check over the actions of his ministers and sometimes  even over powering them by using his veto or advising the president to dismiss him in case of difference of opinion.

Present Prime minister lacks all the above traits, he has almost no or negligible hold over his council of ministers specially the cabinet. He enjoys no political supremacy over other cabinet/ministers. It is a universally accepted fact that all the political powers under the present govt. are vested in Congress president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister is just a nominal head of the government, and an appealing public face.

PM should be commanding and must enjoy political supremacy among his top decision making body i.e., Cabinet, but his status is just ‘first among equals’ rather ‘above everyone else’ and has almost no command or hold over his ministers, every minister in his/her own capacity is free to do anything according to personal will or preference. Present Cabinet does not lack either the quality, expertise or the experience but there is an absolute absence of communication and coordination and thus almost no positive yield. Power is getting concentrated among individual camps, close and loyal to 10 Janpath and hence rewards are mostly based upon loyalty principle than that of performance.

Under Indira Gandhi govt. PMO emerged as a power centre, a top decision making body, its status was even above cabinet, its decisions were unquestionable. Further PMs Like Rajeev Gandhi and A.B. Vajpayee further consolidated its position, under A.B. Vajpayee govt. even his Principal secretary Brijesh Mishra on several occasions, enjoyed an upper hand over that of then Home Minister L.K. Advani (then politically no. 2 in BJP/NDA). The main benefit of a centralized, consolidated and powerful PM/PMO is that, it brings more coherency in government actions and the whole government acts as a single entity, there could be internal differences between ministers/ministries but never a dispute and a standstill situation.

Today, if we analyze the decision making at top we will find there is nothing but chaos, the greatest question remaining, whom to take instructions from ? P.Chidambaram, Susheel Kumar Shinde, A.k. Antoney, Jayram Ramesh, Salman Khursheed, Kapil Sibbal etc. share similar/equivalent ranks with constantly varying degree of Status, Ranks and association with 10 Janpath and obviously there is great degree of difference of opinions among them (a normal situation under any govt.)  But due to lack of leadership abilities in our Prime Minister, it up to ministers to resolve their differences among themselves or visit 10 Janpath if some major question of politics is involved. Even PM does not consider it fit to take actions without due consultations and advice of 10 Janpath, and Mrs. Gandhi willingly/unwillingly has to interfere in the govt. decision-making.

While P. Chidambaram on several occasions tried to avoid the conditions of standoff between different ministries through several small cabinet committees for quick decision making but his strong willingness served no serious purpose due to unwilling or irresponsible PMO. The only function PM delivers efficiently is the rather frequent Reshuffles of portfolios among different ministers and even that based upon newly arrived political equations at 10 Janpath.

Call it Dynasty or whatever but politically Mrs. Gandhi has consolidated the party which was on the verge of total and throughout collapse.  Our PM’s inability to handle the Govt. and Politics has compelled her to step into. If Dr. Manmohan Singh has had the ability to lead a coalition government effectively this could have been one of the best governments India has ever witnessed. Everything was favorable to create a history other than the leadership. Most of the interference which comes through 10 Janpath is under pressure and due to lack of any other alternative. As Manmohan has thoroughly failed to provide a leadership, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has to act.

As there is virtually no control over the ministers from central leadership, they have become totally irresponsible, undisciplined and corrupt. Rampant corruption has spread across whole party lines, large scams and scandals are day to day affair, in nascent stages ministers themselves try to do cover ups at their levels but when they fail, they knock doors of 10 Janpath. Then, the whole government machinery is abused in order to remove the trails and carry on the wash-ups. For example there is hardly any investigating agency in the country including CBI having retained Public faith anymore. Abuse of power and CBI is not a new phenomenon but people still use to have some faith in them which is non-existent nowadays.

There is difference between Administration and management and what present govt. is trying to do is some kind of management in order to keep the government alive at whatever cost. Govt. is being run with the abuse of power, money and blackmailing. UPA has differences with almost all of her allies on some point or the other and uses coercive and repressive means to keep them checked and under control.

Though the performance of UPA – I was still satisfactory there couldn’t be any worse example of governance than that of UPA-II. It can only be compared with the famous “Jungle Raj” of Lalu Prashad Yadav’s Regime in Bihar but at a much larger scale. There is an overall anarchy everywhere; one can’t feel existence of any government. The country is suffering on each and every front, and maybe it is General Administration, Crime, Social, Political, Economical, Corruption, internal policy, foreign policy, internal security and external security or whatever, govt. has failed on each and every front.

Today states mainly lead by Non-Congress/Non-UPA parties are being treated as foreign territories. Former bureaucrats with proven track records of loyalties with Gandhi family are selected as Governors in these states and they are assigned with tasks to interfere in the activities of the state government even through Ultra-Vire means. Central govt. discriminates with them on each and every aspect and even hesitates to allot them their rightful share of revenues, taxes and aid for the implementation of centrally sponsored schemes.

One of the biggest disasters has been foreign policy; today we have arrived such a point where even NEPAL or BHUTAN could claim a more independent and better foreign policy than that of us. Our Diplomacy is limited up to banning Cricket/Hocky matches with Pakistan. Our neighbors without any exception are freely carrying out anti India activities and we are unable to figure out any or take any action in this regard. Who should be blamed for the situation Foreign minister or Congress President? Nah!!! It’s our PM who should take responsibilities for these miseries and vacate the office so that some responsible person could come in and take the charge.