May 25, 1998

Is this the most tragic or the most comic Government ever?

Mani Shankar Aiyar

IWe have no foreign minister, one foreign ministry, two foreign policies for Pakistan and three for China. The Government has become a Cafe de India or a Bharat da dhaba, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the head waiter proffering his Cabinet and Coordination Committee guests a menu to choose from, any item of which will be served with equal felicity.

On power, R. Kumaramangalam has one policy for good sense, one to rile Karunanidhi, one to appease Amma. The element of genius he has displayed is that the policy is quite unimplementable. But no one can blame the Central Government for not implementing it because implementation is for state governments to do -- or not to do, as their fancy takes them.

On economic policy, the finance minister, in the name of swadeshi, is pushing for globalisation. The commerce minister, not content with raising the hackles of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch over his exim policy, has now taken to exhorting the prime minister to be a prime minister. Sound revenge for Vajpayee not having made him foreign minister.

Vajpayee, of course, is plotting his own revenge on Ramakrishna Hegde: drowning the man in the Cauvery. Vajpayee's Government is under judicial injunction to present a plan to implement the Cauvery Tribunal's orders on the sharing of the waters between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Amma will, for at least a moment, close her eyes to Article 356 if she can get her hands on Hegde's eyeballs for the giggle he barely suppressed when she brought up the Cauvery as an apt subject for inclusion in the so-called National Agenda (more accurately known as the Notional Agenda). Pluck those eyeballs out she will if she gets her way on the Cauvery. And if Vajpayee fails to deliver Tamil Nadu's entitlement, not only will she pluck Vajpayee out of 7 Race Course Road, the Supreme Court will pronounce the prime minister and his Government in contempt of court. Damned if he does. Damned if he does not. On states' reorganisation, the agriculture minister says yes to Vananchal only if it is a) named not Vananchal but Jharkhand, as it should be; b) not named or created till what remains of Bihar is compensated in the modest amount of Rs 50,000 crore. The prime minister dare not ask his agriculture minister where that kind of money will come from.

Through the hapless M.F. Husain, the Bajrang Dal has shown its Government what it thinks of its appeasement of the minorities; and through the hapless Ghulam Ali, the Shiv Sena has shown its Government in Delhi (for they are coalition partners there too) what it thinks of its appeasement of Pakistan.

On Ayodhya, the prime minister says it does not exist, the RSS says it is all that matters, the defence minister threatens to leave if it is brought up and the home minister is quoted as saying December 6, 1992 "was among the worst days of my life".

Advani even calls upon the journalists who were on the platform with him to certify how chagrined he was as the masjid came down. It is miraculous how impending prosecution concentrates the mind so wonderfully. Soon, the home minister will be having his own Government prosecute him -- yet another Guinness feather in the Vajpayee Government's cap. At that point, the home minister (as also the HRD minister and the latter's minister of state) will join the distinguished ranks of Sukh Ram, Buta Singh, and Sedapatti Muthiah.

December 6 is the "worst day" of Advani's life not because his wretched rath yatra made Black Sunday inevitable but because, if chargesheeted, he will be back where hawala took him. His prosecution, he pleads, is "political", not criminal. That is the argument the terrorists behind the Coimbatore blasts will make if Advani's specious logic is accepted in court.

Had Advani rushed under the gumbaz and announced that the next brick to fall would fall on his head not only would the shame of the demolition not have stained the nation, Lal Krishnaji could have become Mahatma Advani. It is now too late in the day to not classify him with the arsonists and murderers and other criminals who went on the rampage because Advani failed to restrain the masjid-wreckers on December 6. One can, at a pinch, live with the petty malfeasance of a Muthiah. But can the country entrust the Home Ministry to a man under indictment in a criminal court?

The curious thing is the parties most disturbed by these curious goings-on are not the parties of the treasury benches but those of the Opposition. The Congress certainly has no interest in profiting from Vajpayee's troubles, nor is anyone but H.S. Surjeet interested in forming an alternative government. Everyone has other, more important matters to attend to. So if a motion of no-confidence were to be brought in, the country might find the Opposition voting against -- and perhaps the prime minister voting for. After all, it is his senior cabinet colleague, Hegde, who finds the poor man looking "exhausted" a mere six weeks into his reign.

Watch this space. The shenanigans will continue. I really think the chief minister of Delhi should impose his entertainment tax on meetings of the Coordination Committee. It is the most fun show in town.

The author is secretary, All-India Congress Committee.

Issue Contents | Write to us | Subscriptions

© Living Media India Ltd