A lame duck Prime Minister delivers a lame address

Manmohan Singh talked of 6.5% growth this year while ratings agencies reckon that it could slip to even below 5%.

WORDS NOT ENOUGH TO REVIVE COMATOSE GOVERNMENT

It was dull as ditchwater. Even that pretender Prime Minister Charan Singh had put some pep in his lone address from the ramparts of the Red Fort. With an eye on his rural constituency, Charan Singh had concentrated on agriculture; even talking about the amount of milk Israeli cows gave in his address to the nation. But no such oratorical or conversational flourish for Manmohan Singh. It was his ninth I-D address on the trot, but, typically, he failed to put any vigour and verve in it. Now put your hand on your heart and recall one thing that Singh talked about this 15 August.

If it was not his style to make rousing speeches, at least he could have worked a little more on its contents. He ought to have said something inspiring, something that helped dispel the mood of despondency, something to restore the confidence of the people in the future, that allayed fears of an economic stagnation. Even in the penultimate year of his five-year term he failed to reassure the nation that he was now determined to become his own boss and take charge of the government of which he was the constitutional head. He failed to do any of those things.

In sharp contrast, President Pranab Mukherjee in his maiden address the previous evening showed some panache. At the very least, he was a huge improvement on the hole-in-the-air that was President Pratibha Devisingh Patil. Admittedly, as the titular head of the Republic, the onus to do things lay with the Prime Minister.

That Singh is not about to take charge and apportion blame for the paralysis of the government where it is actually due came through fully from the much-quoted paragraph. “As far as creat- ing an economic environment within the country for rapid economic growth is concerned, I believe that we are not being able to achieve this because of a lack of political consensus on many issues. The time has now come to view the issues which affect our development processes as matters of national security.”

This is self- delusionary. Never mind what Singh believes. He should find out what the rest of the country believes. And, frankly, the country believes that he has failed to provide leadership, failed to be firm when required, to say “no” to the extra-constitutional bosses who are forcing down his gullet a regime of giveaways and entitlements which has made the fisc much worse than even a glib- talking Chidambaram cannot set right anytime soon.

Finger- pointing at the Opposition without ensuring that there is consensus within the Congress party and its allies on key economic policies seems to have become a habit with the mealy-mouthed Prime Minister. Take FDI in retail. Never mind what the Opposition stand is, has Singh got everyone in the UPA on board? So, what consensus is he talking about? Even the CBI- distressed allies like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati are unwilling to go along with the PM on FDI in retail. The PM talked of 6.5% growth this year while independent experts and ratings agencies reckon that it could slip to even below 5%. All evidence points to a grim economic scenario. The latest data for factory output, exports, agriculture output due to a deficient monsoon back the prognosis of the ratings agencies rather than of the PM.

PHOTO OP FOR POLITICOS

Politicians love to bask in the glory of others. They fought over the six medal winners of t he London Olympics like Kilkenny cats, with each VVIP wanting exclusive photo op with them. The Indian Olympics Association saw a divide down the middle on the question as to whom the six should be taken to for the so-called felicitations over tea and samosas. When those habitually inclined towards the establishment suggested that the first stop for the winners has to be 10 Janpath, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, officiating chief of the IOA in the absence of Suresh Kalmadi, put his foot down, saying in that case they will have to call on L. K. Advani as well. Trapped, they agreed reluctantly to escort the six along with the rest of the contingent to Advani’s house after the call at Sonia Gandhi’s.

Of course, the PM had to be on the itinerary of the harassed lot who haven’t had a moment to themselves after their return from London. But how the Speaker of the Lok Sabha Meira Kumar figured in this conducted tour of Lutyens’ Delhi remains a mystery. Since she has most unabashedly exploited her office and the television channel under her control to promote herself as also to build a cult around her late father, Jagjivan Ram, Kumar, in turn, sent out invitations to other VVIPs to join her when the Olympians came calling. You could watch obligatory extensive coverage of her mingling with the six medal winners on Lok Sabha TV.

Meanwhile, the winners should not to be taken in by public announcements of various awards in cash and kind. After making a splash in the media, more often than not politicians are known to fail to make good these promises to give plots of land, flats, cash etc., making the winners to run from pillar to post. Some of the awards announced by state governments for the 1983 World Cup winning team are yet to reach its members who have abandoned the idea of pursuing them with the successor regimes.

SPURNING AN HONOUR

This is a first even for our permissive politicians. In Karnataka, politicians of all hues seemed to have joined hands to spurn the UNESCO proposal to declare the Western Ghats a World Heritage Site. This is an honour most nations seek, nay, work behind the scenes to get because it bestows international recognition on ancient monuments, old cities, pristine ecosystems, etc. But in Karnataka there seems to be a conspiracy to reject the UNESCO offer because it would then prevent politicians from milking the Western Ghats through an unbridled exploitation by friendly real estate developers, miners, etc. Can one rely on BJP president Nitin Gadkari to put some sense in the heads of whoever in his party is in control of the government at this moment?

MOVERS AND SHAKERS OF DELHI

As usual, the list of undesirable people the CBI updates annually, and expects top bureaucrats and ministers to keep at an arm’s length, has more people from the capital than any other city in the country. Quite clearly, Delhi is also the national capital of dalals, isn’t it? Of the 23 who figure in the latest list as many as 14 are from Delhi, with Mumbai coming next followed by Kolkata and Chennai.

Lest you think that politicians would shun these people, it should be noted that they are most sought after because without them there would be no one to oil the political machinery. Indeed, the more undesirable you are in the eyes of the CBI, the more sought after you will be in the courts of venal ministers and bureaucrats.