Weak government attracts strong troubles

A weak government with string of scandals attract strong troubles. this is clearly evident from the everyday happenings in the UPA government. Baba Ramdev who commands lakhs of followers through his yoga teachings and marketing strategies is the latest personality who challenged the weak kneed UPA. Coalition partners, opposition members, underworld dons, naxalities, external threats and other innumberable troubles keep attacking the government at the centre. Its inept handling is compounding the existing crisis. May be the UPA feels great after putting off Ramdev's fast at the Ramlila grounds at Delhi. But actually it is weakening its position day by day.

The Deccan Chronicle writes on 6th June 2011

After both sides struck an initial stance of reasonableness, the government reckoned that yoga guru Ramdev was probably disinclined to end his protest campaign at Delhi’s Ramlila Grounds, although he had agreed to do so in a letter submitted the previous day to the government ministers negotiating with him.

Sensing that the Ramdev movement had, in effect, been organised by the RSS, and then finding arch communal troublemaker Sadhvi Rithambara, known for spewing venom against the minorities, was sharing the Ramlila Ground stage with the yoga teacher, it was expected that concern and alarm would follow in official circles, not to say among a broad swathe of public opinion.

The eviction of the saffron-wrapped yoga teacher and his followers by the Delhi police from the Ramlila Grounds past midnight on Saturday thus occasions little surprise. It transpires that Baba Ramdev had sought official permission to hold a “yoga camp” there but instead he nourished a political jamboree seeking to instigate people against the government. This was unfortunate.

Baba Ramdev had told followers that 90 per cent of his demands had already been met. Some of the issues raised by the yoga guru are indeed reasonable. The corruption question finds an echo among all sections of citizens.

It is beyond considerations of party politics and ideology. The Centre, for instance, can without delay clear legislation — one of Ramdev’s key demands — intended to provide relief to ordinary people against petty harassment and bribe-extraction at service delivery points, for instance when picking up a ration card, a driving licence, a water connection or a death certificate.

When governments don’t take care of such basic needs of citizens, they lay themselves open to the charge of imperviousness, and typically fire middle and lower middle class angst, which generally drives protests in urban India.

Worse, in such situations, an absence of governmental initiative makes possible large-scale mobilisation of disgruntled elements — as we saw in the case of Ramdev and Anna Hazare. Such collectives can be exploited to irresponsible ends by demagogues of any hue — from Naxalites on the far left to the communal far right.

Popular concern and frustration with the official machinery has been exacerbated by instances of corruption in high places that have come to light in the last eight or nine months, detracting from the government’s moral authority. Even so, it would be foolish and dangerous if society permitted half-baked ideas of demagogues to take hold, and permit such elements an opportunity to overrun the system.

It cannot be overemphasised that, in particular, the issue of repatriation of black money in foreign tax havens is complex and not amenable to overnight solutions as it presupposes negotiations with foreign governments. The idea of declaring all Indian black money overseas a national asset is even more complicated.

After the police action at Ramlila Grounds, it is a pity that a national party like the BJP lost perspective and begun comparing it with the Emergency. It would be useful to remember that if it were indeed the Emergency once again, the party would not be free to belt out anti-government messages from the podium of its national executive in Lucknow.

Drop the ego, order JPC

The UPA government's efforts to whitewash 1.76 lakh crore scam got egged. With the vigilant media, judiciary and a hand full of proactive citizens, spectrum scam is on the top of the national surface today. If the dumb government missed the scam of the civilisation atleast it should have paid attention to others information. For the past many months the UPA has been finding all tricks to avoid the accusation. It refused to accept the mass charges of corruption. Instead of sending the gang of culprits to jail immediately it waited, watched and annoyed the entire nation and the whole world. Shame is the mild word to use the situational mess which the UPA has got in. The immediate task is to book all the real masterminds of all scams including spectrum, CWG, Adrash and other unearthed scandals and give them life imprisonment. Otherwise Indira Congress is going to oblivion forever.

The Deccan Chronicle writes on 10 February 2011

With the Leader of the Lok Sabha, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, holding a discussion with the Opposition parties on Tuesday on the conduct of Parliament’s forthcoming Budget Session, there appears to be a sense — communicated to the media by the Opposition parties — that the fog might be clearing on the issue of a joint parliamentary committee probing the 2G spectrum scam, and that the government might be coming round to accepting the Opposition demand. However, this optimism might be premature. With the Budget Session less than a fortnight away, it is natural that political parties would return to the question of forming a JPC to probe the 2G scam, a demand initially made by the BJP and the Left and one which comprehensively derailed the Winter Session two months ago. The Congress had resisted a JPC probe. Instead, it professed its faith in Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, now chaired by senior BJP leader, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, doing the job. The government went out of its way to give the PAC an investigative adjunct to facilitate the inquiry, and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, broke from precedent to offer to appear before the PAC. The BJP was not persuaded and continued to insist on a JPC probe. It is, however, evident that in recent weeks the political situation has registered some change. Other than the BJP and its NDA allies, the rest of the Opposition has subtly signalled leaving behind its insistence on the JPC issue by privileging the running of Parliament over the path the inquiry into 2G should follow, although at the formal level they have not abandoned the JPC demand. In the last session of Parliament the JPC demand had gathered considerable force because the entire Opposition appeared united on it, and some parties that technically support the UPA government but oppose it on key issues also favoured the JPC route. That appears not to be the case now. The Left, and the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav, seem not to want to be on the same page as the BJP as elections are looming in Kerala, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. They realise that parties that stalled Parliament over the JPC issue have not earned public sympathy. Many who oppose the government are unhappy about Parliament not being allowed to function, particularly when the government has no difficulty about the 2G case being probed by the PAC. In short, the government is not avoiding a parliamentary probe. In the event, the non-BJP Opposition is these days busy canvassing the importance of letting Parliament transact its business. After the Tuesday meeting some Opposition leaders had quoted Mr Mukherjee as saying that no price was too high to pay for the sake of letting Parliament function. It is this which raised hopes among a few about a JPC probe materialising. It is noteworthy that neither Mr Mukherjee nor his party has said anything to indicate that their position on the JPC has changed.