‘ .. given the nature of competitive politics and the very fractured mandates given to governments, it has become difficult sometimes for us to do what is manifestly obvious’. Such lament should be no surprise to those following the PM’s moods, particularly the post-nuclear deal fiasco. Disappointed; Distraught; Disillusioned; Sad … these are some of the words used by the PM himself, besides those close to him and the media to describe his current state of mind.
The PM’s pathos is sure to evoke a tear or two from some bleeding-hearts sympathetic to him: An honest and capable man rendered ineffective by a bunch of scheming partners and a conspiracy of political circumstances. But tear the illusion of sympathy and the reality that stares from behind the veil is that the PM is only stewing in his own juice, besides paying for his party’s past and present sins too. First to the track record of the Congress party to which he attached himself at the behest of his political mentor, PVN, after gaining laurels as a career bureaucrat for decades. Has the Congress itself been ignorant of, and immune to, competitive politics and how has that party dealt with fractured mandates? M.Singh should have known better before lapsing into lament mode.
This is the first time that the Congress is running a ‘truly’ coalition government with the help of several allies. Though PVN’s regime too was a minority one, it just needed marginal outside support and he managed that admirably, albeit, by hook and crook. In any case, his ministry was entirely Congress. It is no secret that the dynastic Congress has no stomach for power sharing and prefers absolute power. Three of the four snap polls that the nation has faced in the last thirty years were directly owing to the Congress withdrawing support to incumbent coalition Governments.These Governments, products of fractured mandates, were formed after the then Presidents secured crystal clear letters of support from the Congress and yet, the Congress pulled the rug at the first opportunity on flimsy grounds, displaying its distaste for being either a spectator or a supporter. That the party should be tasting its own medicine now is plain political providence. Really, given the Cong’s sordid history as an untrustworthy ally, one would think its own current allies are being very kind and charitable to it, though only in their self-interest. After all, M.Singh is already into the fourth year and may well complete five, a privilege the Cong never bestowed on its ‘dependents’. Can betrayers, then, complain?
If that be the political legacy the PM represents, at a personal level too he has no cause to be grumbling about fractured mandates and fickle allies. First, he is PM today only because of the fractured mandate. Had the Cong secured absolute majority or even a bargainable strength, no inner voices would have surfaced. And if not Sonia, at the least, Rahul or Priyanka or any other pet puppy from the royal bloodline would have sat on the gaddi. Again, his government is a subversion of even that fractured mandate, with almost 400 of the 540 odd constituencies voting against his party. And worse, his party is not even the single largest, but propped by ‘allies’ who were enemies till just the other day. In fact, one would believe M.Singh was set up only to take the knocks, insulate the first family and keep the seat warm for you-know-who. Now, can punching bags and shock-absorbers complain?
And then there are other inherent infirmities that render him ineffectual and vulnerable even without troublesome partners. In our democracy, the PM is the de facto boss of the nation and propriety therefore warrants that he be elected, in the least. But the ‘upright’ M.Singh has not bothered to face the voters even after becoming PM. In fact, the one time he fought elections, in 1999, he lost! Now, how would his own colleagues, partymen and allies alike, who had all been hauled and mauled at the hustings and those who can lay claim to votes just enough to scrape through, look up at him? Indeed, his was akin to a bureaucratic appointment a la RBI Governor or Finance Secretary, just a continuation of his pre-politics practice. But unlike those jobs, the pedigrees that have landed him his current post are not academic acumen and administrative brilliance, but servile obedience and easy dispensability! Can such showpieces complain?
But do his personal credentials matter any more? Had M.Singh valued his own credentials, he would not have staked them at the political altar and offered them as an alibi for an extra-constitutional authority to wield power from behind. So as Sonia covered herself with glory usurped from M.Singh, he himself stood stripped of his hard-earned reputation and respect. And besides allowing himself to be thus abused, he has also willingly perverted both democratic conventions and the Constitution. For instance, an established norm that the PM be the leader of the majority party in the LS has been broken with Sonia as the CPP leader. So, in Parliament the PM will ever remain a lesser mortal not just in the scheme of sycophantic Congmen but to the allies and the nation itself. And while the Constitution says the PM will hold office at the pleasure of the President, in M.Singh’s case it is the Cong President’s pleasure that sustains him. Can a puppet and proxy, answerable only to His Master’s Voice, inner or outer, complain?
Constitutional pundits describe the PM’s post as ‘the keystone of the arch of cabinet’. But, from choosing ministers to determining portfolios to dumping non-performers to taking key executive decisions, every privilege and prerogative vested by the Constitution on the PM has become a predicament, thanks to the efforts of this ‘conscientious, capable and clean’ man. Now, can someone who has thus converted a lofty Constitutional post into a laughable corner outpost complain?
Undermined and overruled by every Lalu, Baalu and Comrade on almost all issues, M.Singh must have by now learnt to take slights in his stride. Indeed, his simulated sorrow-show will not sell any longer. So, save your tears, Sardar. Lest crocodiles complain!
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