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The de facto PM
Though Sonia so graciously handed the reins of power
to Manmohan, we still see more of her than we do of
him
TAVLEEN SINGH
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.
Looking for a Bride Groom
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50
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.
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=48396
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