The Real Underachiever
Ok, this is getting a tad bit
repetitive. Character assassination of Manmohan Singh is the new in-thing.
While the Time calls him an underachiever, Statesmen is ready with an equally
offensive “poodle”. Hence it came as no surprise when the Washington Post
decided to portray the Indian Prime Minister as a tragic figure. At home he
does not fare very well either. He has been called everything from the “weakest
Prime Minister India has ever seen” to “Shikhandi”. How did this happen? A man
who was celebrated as “one of the world's most revered leaders" and “the
model of what a political leader should be" is now described as “a
dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government.”
Let
me take you back some 248 years ago to Buxar, an eastern district in Bihar.
When British Major Hector Munro defeated the combined army of Mir Kasim, the
Nawab of Bengal; Shuja-ud-daula, Nawab of Awadh; and Shah Alam II, the Mughal
Emperor, the plum victim was not the authoritative Mir Kasim but the absolutely
powerless Mughal monarch Shah Alam II. The British signed a treaty called
“Treaty of Allahabad” with the Mughal king, there by asserting their supremacy
over the prosperous eastern region of the Indian subcontinent.
The biggest
disaster came in the form of dual system of government, implemented in Bengal
by “the” Robert Clive, then famous as Clive of India, as a part of the administrative reforms. Accordingly the
British East India Company acquired the real power in Bengal, the most
prosperous place on earth at that time, and on the other hand the Nawab of
Bengal (De-jure Ruler of Bengal) was made accountable for all the company's
decisions and their fallouts.
It does not
escape a curious mind's observation that Robert Clive could have easily abolished
the post of Nawab of Bengal, and assumed power himself. But the advantages of
not doing so were immense. By having this dual government system, the power
centre was separated from responsibility. In effect, all the mismanagement
(read cruel apathy) which originated at the hands of a mere trading company and
its greedy masters, where attributed to the local ruler Nawabs of Bengal who
were puppets in the hands of the English East India Company.
After nearly
two and a half century nothing has changed. India is still ruled by a foreigner
who is not accountable for all the power wielded and India (and now the
International media too) hold a local native puppet ruler accountable for the
mismanagement perpetrated by the greedy (or thick-skulled?) foreigner. When the Sonia
Gandhi led UPA won a shocking victory in 2004, her inner soul spoke deafeningly
loud that she renounced the post of
Prime Minister to Dr. Manmohan Singh; then known for his stint as the Finance
Minister of PM Narasimha Rao who was instrumental in ushering a wave of
economic liberalisation reforms and also as the not-so-stellar Leader of
Opposition in Rajya Sabha during the NDA rule. The wail of MPs like Renuka
Chowdhary and others still echo in my ears, since they deeply scarred my mental
image as a kid.* Cutting short to chase, Dr. Manmohan Singh was coroneted with
pomp and fair. He was seen as a welcome change among the loud, uncouth,
unprofessional, uneducated politicians we usually see. Everybody was quick to
praise Sonia Gandhi for appointing someone else as the Prime Minister while she
in the most bharathiya-nari-esque manner made a sacrifice. [Read - Her
alleged act of renunciation in 2004 took sycophancy to new heights when her
party men and women began comparing her to Sister Nivedita and Mother Teresa.]
Ah, how touching!
Through this
write up, I wish to impress the fact upon readers that merely blaming Dr.
Manmohan Singh and abusing and ridiculing him is not the way. Identifying where
the rot lies and surgically removing the cancer is the path to be followed. Even
a cursory look at the multi-pronged approach through which Sonia Gandhi led the
Republic of India into a state of deep chaos and total anarchy , will make the
UPA and its chairperson repulsive in the eyes of the ordinary Indian, the
famous yet pathetic “aam admi”.
·
National
Advisory Council
That Sonia
Gandhi is the super Prime Minister and that she is having a super cabinet
called National Advisory Council (NAC) is not new. NAC was created in UPA 1.0
for implementing the Common Minimum Programme – the document based on which
Left supported UPA “from outside”. After the office-of-profit fiasco and her
resignation, when Congress won again in 2009, the National Advisory Council was
renewed to act as an interface between the government and the public. It
consists mostly of retired beurocrats, economists and of course social
activists. It is to be noted that there is no provision in the constitution of
India which supports the basis of such an unelected body.
One can ask
that if the earlier NAC was created so that Left parties’ concerns were
adequately met through the CMP, why it was renewed even though there is no such
instability issue being confronted by UPA 2.0. Ill-advise from loyal workers or
personal satisfaction of ego – whatever may be the case, the fact that a set of
left-leaning activists and ex-beurocrats are churning out bills without any
fore-thought or common sense (except the Right to Information Act, but sadly
for Indians, brilliance is not a norm but exception among the NAC policy
makers) is not a welcome move. It is a worryingly
larger issue that Sonia Gandhi, who heads this
kitchen-cabinet, does not even bother to talk to anyone in the meeting or even
make a significant suggestion to any of these ridiculous ideas . Leave alone the tiny detail that she is not allowing the Prime Minister
to function independently and has made him a symbol of subservience; it is a
cruel injustice to the people of India if the “supreme ruler” herself is not
making any contribution to the policies, which are later on given a label of
being her brain-child.
Read
– “She listens carefully and doesn't say much," said a member who
worked with her in the first NAC.”
Priyanka
Chopra recently told in a conclave that although she became a celebrity
over-night by winning the Miss World title, she was not ready for in-depth
questions like the ones regarding economy of Uganda. We accept that. One cannot
expect a person, especially if they are Miss World contestants, to know about
the economy of Uganda, unless of course, she is from Uganda or any of the
neighbouring countries. But Sonia Gandhi should realise that although the
Indian television media is not tired of writing banal ballads about how she had
risen from a humble background to become the 4th richest politician
in the world, the lack of education and feigning selective ignorance is not an
excuse for the bare minimum exposure to matters of governance.
Following is a
short analysis on how Sonia Gandhi’s so called pet-projects have functioned.
1.
NREGA
- A policy with no long term vision
- Logistical Issues
Assuming that the standard, right-leaning, pro-free marker arguments against this
scheme does not exist; assuming that NREGA is the best possible way that a government having
205 MPs can remove poverty of people below the poverty line, let us see how
serious the government is in implementing this scheme. One look
at what the highest court of our country has told will prove that the
implementation has been a big let - down. “There has been distribution of
money. But in many cases, it is going to wrong persons and real beneficiaries
do not receive the cash,” the Bench said. The Supreme Court also added “There
should be some real development at the ground level”, showing that NREGA is not
making any actual progress, which in turn was its original aim. Logistical blunders have been made by the ruling government by not upgrading the
infrastructure facilities for rural banks, thereby forcing those unfortunate
officers in rural areas into a state of misery and utter bewilderment.
- Democratisation of corruption
Neelambari told famously in the
Rajnikanth starrer Padayappa, “Vayasanaalum
un azhagum stylum innum unna vitu pokave illa.” (Even when you are old your
handsomeness and style hasn’t left you) to which he promptly replies, “Koodave
poranthu pokave pokathu.” (These are things born with me and hence would never
leave) One wonders if Congress feels the same way about corruption. As part of
the democratisation of corruption, thereby giving a platform for not only the
ministers and top level beurocrats in New Delhi, (note – I do not subscribe to
the notion that all politicians and beurocrats puts one’s own greed above the
nation’s welfare) but also to the Gram Panchayat Pradhans and members, through
MGNREGA’s unchecked fund flow and poor accountability rules, Sonia Gandhi led
Congress has allowed the plague of corruption to permeate to the ground level
executive. To quote the Hon. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, “But
there has been malfeasance: Wrong guys have got payment; full payment has not
been given; money meant for asset creation has gone into the purchase of
Boleros and Pajeros.” One has to assume
that this, no doubt, is well in tune with UPA Chairperson’s policy of
strengthening grass level leaders. Kudos to you Ma’am!
Read
– “Constant threat from the gram panchayats, zilla panchayats, contractors and
state government’s lack of seriousness to control irregularities in plagued
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme has
made many shy away from the post of ombudsman.”
Read
- "Sometimes we do not know that who is working and who is getting the
wages. Many beneficiaries were of the opinion that wage of Rs 120 per day was
not provided to them. They hardly got Rs 40-50, generally 100 day's
man-days are not completed and there are very few cases of the completion of
100 days of work,"
Read-
“The modus operandi is simple -- a contractor enrolls around 50 persons to take
up the development of a lake or a road. He manages this easily as people like
truck drivers, rickshaw drivers, petty shop owners, mentally challenged persons
or tea-stall owners fall prey to his offer of getting money for doing no work.”
- Awareness
Another complaint NREGA has
attracted is the low level of awareness government has managed to spread about
the policies of NREGA, other than that of the 100 days work. For a scheme which
is touted as the vote gainer and game changer and brain child and what not, the
marketing done has to be exaggerated. For example- the scheme provides for a crèche
near the working area for women with young children. But nor is it present in
many of the work places, neither are those poor women toiling in the work
places demanding one.
- Productivity
A sample –“They point out that
the quality of the assets was poor. Farm bunding has been initiated without any
proper technical planning because which the quality of work was shoddy. In
Tikamgarh, plants have already died because no arrangement was made for water.
So, the poor quality of assets makes a hindrance in achieving sustainable
development.”
Do we know what Sonia Gandhi
feels about making the rural population of India create such sub-standard
products which is not going to benefit them in the long run? This is cruelty.
Knowing that one’s hard work and toil is not going to be of any use and yet asking
him/her to work, how much ever the salary may be, is a crime to human potential and nothing worse
than forced labour and it is time that she understands this. But then, when
questions themselves are raised as to how much her involvement is in this
scheme, other than the repulsive political posturing in her rallies, one cannot
expect her to answer these questions.
- Lack of political will
MGNREGA has become a tool for
creating rural vote banks and spending the state’s money through irresponsible
ways of implementation and faking non-existent empathy by the UPA Chairperson
and her battalion of dim-witted Congress members. The lack of political will
shows in the way politicians comment about the short comings. Either they
completely deny the existence of any wrong doing (the convenient Zero Loss
Theory) or they try to justify it as a inevitable evil. But the most
bizarre justification comes from Mr. Jairam Ramesh himself. In an interview
to Mint he said,
“I did an exercise
recently in which I said: suppose all states operate NREGA with the same degree
of efficiency and reliability as Andhra (Pradesh), what will be the total
expenditure involved? Thank god for Indian inefficiency. Had we had the entire
country follow the Andhra model, we would require an allocation of hundred
thousand crores, which is two-and-a-half times of what we are spending. So in a
way, in a very perverse way, one can argue that look, we have been saved by
Indian inefficiency.” - I have nothing more to add.
For a party, in which members, apparently, do not even dare
breathe without the permission of the Congress President, when a minister
himself espouses such weird opinions, one can't but wonder, if she supports such
views or if she does not even have a modicum of intelligence to respond and
understand the blunders of her ministers.
The above mentioned shortcomings of NREGA are only the tip
of an iceberg. To know the larger implications read
- UPA-2: Stooping to survive
- NREGA – Good politics Bad business
- Did NREGA kill as many jobs as it created?
- NREGA and the law of unintended consequences
- Mess-up: High food inflation when granaries are bursting
Note - This is the 1st of the 3 part series on UPA Chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Posts
I agree that Sonia Gandhi is also responsible, but I wouldn't call her the real underachiever. Manmohan Singh is the prime minister, and ultimate responsibility rests with him. However, as the leader of the ruling party, SG bears some responsibility too. That the leader of the majority party is not the PM, this has never happened in India before and takes us into uncharted territory regarding delegation of responsibilities and power. Even if she is not a member of the Cabinet, she is still an MP and, as I said before, leader of the largest party in Parliament. Thus, I agree with this post that MMS is not solely responsible, but disagree that SG is solely responsible too.