|
VIEWPOINT: FIFTH COLUMN
Governance
In Limbo
The
Government doesn't seem concerned about the fallout of the war next door
—By Tavleen Singh
 Cruise
missiles pound a country in our neighbourhood, our old foe Pakistan changes
overnight in the eyes of the world from a pariah to a frontline state
while we get relegated to bystander status, the roots of Islamic fundamentalism
in our country run so deep that students in Srinagar shout "Osama
se rishta kya, la ilaha illallah", our economy is slowing down before
our very eyes-it should be clear that we will not escape the consequences
of the first war of the 21st century. But in Delhi, it is business as
usual for Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Government. True, there have been, since
the attack on Afghanistan, a couple of emergency meetings of the Cabinet
at which the nation's security was supposedly pondered over. But there
is no real indication that either Vajpayee or any member of his Government
has understood the seriousness of the problems we are likely to face.
The most serious of these relate to the economy.
With a global recession looming, there is no chance of India escaping
its effects, but nobody in Delhi seems particularly concerned, least of
all our finance minister. His thugs, who pass for inspectors, continue
to run extortion rackets in the name of income-tax inspection and because
nobody can stop them, even legitimate businessmen look constantly over
their shoulders and hesitate to invest. The finance minister must know
what is happening, that his wondrous plans for the economy remain largely
unimplemented. But he does nothing.
The other economic ministries are equally somnolent
about things that need to be done and equally wide awake about things
that do not. So, for reasons nobody can fully understand, the Commerce
Ministry has banned the import of meat and dairy products and raised the
duties on wines so high that they may as well be banned. This hardly affects
the average Indian, so the reasons are hard to fathom. But it seriously
affects the hotel industry which is currently reeling under a severe downturn.
On account of the war in our neighbourhood,
most hotels report that there will be no foreign tourists this winter.
Resorts that usually need to be booked a year in advance for the Christmas-New
Year period report that all their bookings have been cancelled. Did the
Government need to impose these ludicrous bans at this point?
No, but we are a Third World country and one
of the characteristics of Third World governance is that we concern ourselves
with the meaningless and do nothing about things that are important. National
security is important, but here again we take a Third World approach.
So, after our external affairs minister politely escorted those terrorists
to Kandahar in exchange for the passengers of IC-814 our security agencies
forgot about them. Result? Masood Azhar went on to form the Jaish-e-Mohammad
which proudly claimed responsibility for killing 38 innocent people in
the bombing of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly two weeks ago. And it turns
out that one of the other terrorists we released was responsible for sending
large sums of money to Atta Mohammad who led the bombing of the World
Trade Center. Would the Home Ministry like to explain what efforts it
made to track the movements of the terrorists it so kindly released?
We are eager to join the global coalition against
terrorism and are disappointed that so little attention is being paid
to our offers of help. Perhaps we were ignored because we have done such
a hopeless job of bringing our own terrorists to justice. With the Taliban
regime on the verge of extinction there is likely to be an even larger
number of Islamic fundamentalists on the loose in the region with serious
consequences for us in Kashmir. Are we prepared?
We have a right to know but nobody is likely
to give us any answers because another characteristic of Third World governance
is that it takes place-if at all-in total secrecy.
In more advanced democracies, presidents and
prime ministers feel the need to keep the people informed about what they
are doing. Since the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush and
senior members of his administration have become familiar figures on our
TV screens where they explain every important decision they take.
The difference between them and us was so obvious
that it briefly inspired our prime minister to address the nation-something
he has rarely done in our own moments of crisis. We have also seen a bit
more of Jaswant Singh than we did in the past, but so unused are our political
leaders to the importance of TV in modern communication that they usually
end up sounding lofty or awkward like bad actors in a bad play. Their
performance never rises above the amateur (perhaps because they are amateurs)
and is rarely reassuring. As the country heads into troubled times what
we need is reassurance. And some signs of real governance.
|
METRO TODAY
Web
Exclusives
