AGENDA | Sunday, April 19, 2009 | Email | Print | 
I am a Complan boy, says PM
Kanchan Gupta
Manmohan Singh is desperate to prove that he is not a timid person who can be shoved around not only by his party bosses and Cabinet colleagues but also by those who would like to see him pack up and leave the spacious and sprawling Prime Minister’s residence on Race Course Road. “Enough is enough,” he declared this past week, before launching a spiteful, venomous tirade against Mr LK Advani, the main contender for his job. He now mocks at Mr Advani, the BJP’s ‘Iron Man’, for “melting” in the face of terrorist attacks during the years when the NDA was in power. He has also accused Mr Advani of “weeping in a corner” while the disputed Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhoomi structure at Ayodhya was being pulled down, brick by brick, by enraged kar sevaks. In sharp contrast, he, recently anointed ‘Sher-e-Punjab’ (or, as some would say, ‘Loin of Punjab’, no less) by Mr Rahul Gandhi, who went on to describe Mr Singh as “the pride of India” while his sister compared him to Mahatma Gandhi, is the real ‘determined leader’, a ‘doer’ who leads from the front. Unlike the BJP, the Congress does not ‘concede’ to the demands of terrorists but uses the services of commandos to kill them. More importantly, he has the Pakistanis by their short and curly, begging for mercy. With a Rambo clone at the helm of affairs, India has nothing to fear.
Really, Prime Minister? While exaggeration comes naturally to politicians — reluctant or otherwise — over exaggeration can be counter-productive. Our ‘Sher-e-Punjab’, who remained blissfully ignorant about the CBI giving a clean chit to those accused of leading murderous mobs during the ghastly slaughter of Sikhs in 1984 till a national outcry forced him out of his slumber, should do a reality check before he indulges in further chest-thumping. Ever since he was nominated as Prime Minister in the summer of 2004, Mr Singh has presided over a Government whose actions have encouraged terrorists aided, abetted and armed by Pakistan to strike remorselessly and repeatedly. Anybody who can count beyond 100 would know that more Indians have been killed in terrorist attacks in the last five years than during the six years when the BJP-led NDA was in power. And anybody who doesn’t suffer from selective amnesia would recall that the attacks became more vicious after the Prime Minister travelled to Cuba via the US to tell Gen Pervez Musharraf, as directed by the Americans, that Pakistan is as much a victim of terrorism as India.
There is more. Had the Pakistanis not gone and spoilt the party, Mr Singh would have concluded a deal with them to ‘settle’ the Jammu & Kashmir issue by signing away India’s sovereignty. Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri told Karan Thapar in a recent interview that India and Pakistan were ‘close’ to working out the ‘outline of a solution’ to the Jammu & Kashmir issue and had reached an ‘understanding’ on disengagement in Siachen while discussing demilitarisation on both the sides of the Line of Control. “Both India and Pakistan were working on similar sort of things on both the sides through the back channels and had almost agreed on four issues — demilitarisation, regionalisation, self-governance and joint mechanism,” Mr Kasuri said. According to him, the agreements could not fructify because of “sheer bad luck” and because Mr Singh’s promised visit to Islamabad did not materialise, not because wisdom prevailed in South Block but because, as explained by Mr Kasuri, first there were Assembly elections in India and then chaos and mayhem in Pakistan over the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Had fate not intervened in such a strange manner, the tragic story of Jammu & Kashmir which began with Jawaharlal Nehru calling a halt to the Indian Army’s offensive against Pakistani intruders, which resulted in Pakistan gaining control over one-third of the State, would have concluded with Mr Singh gifting away what remains with India.
Tough guys don’t cry, Mr Singh says, but he forgets to add that when Mohammed Haneef was detained by the police in Australia for possible links with Islamist bombers of Indian origin in Britain, he, by his own admission, spent sleepless nights, agonising over the plight of the terror suspect and his parents. In the last five years, Mr Singh is not known to have spent a few moments, forget spending sleepless nights, worrying about the victims of terrorism in India — the children who have been orphaned, the women who have been widowed, the parents who grieve for their sons and daughters, the families which have lost their sole bread-earners. If he has expressed any concern, it is for the families of terrorists killed in encounters with security forces and offered them financial compensation. He did not feel compelled to act against his hugely incompetent Home Minister till the outrage over the 26/11 terrorist attacks on Mumbai forced the Congress to sack him. Had there been no Assembly polls in November-December 2008, Mr Shivraj Patil would have still been making a spectacle of himself.
Yes, the commandos of the NSG did a remarkable job in Mumbai, but the credit for that does not go to Mr Singh or his Government. The incident occurred on Indian soil and it was incumbent upon the Government to act. Instead of claiming credit for ‘killing’ nine of the 10 fidayeen, Mr Singh owes the nation an explanation about the collapse of the intelligence-gathering mechanism under his leadership. He must also account for the abysmal initial response which led to the loss of scores of lives. Not surprisingly, he has preferred to gloss over the shocking attempt by one of his Cabinet colleagues to deflect attention from the Pakistanis by pointing fingers at Hindu organisations, which was of a piece with the crude Islamist propaganda that the 26/11 attacks were the result of a Hindu-Zionist conspiracy.
We could go on and on and cite example after example of how Mr Singh is responsible for the collapse of internal security. But that would be of no consequence to him and his admirers. But since he has raked up the issue of conceding the demands of terrorists, it would be in order to remind him that a Government of which he was the Finance Minister had ensured safe passage for terrorists who had taken over Srinagar’s Hazratbal shrine. And, till such time they were holed up inside the shrine, the Government had fed them biryani and oranges. But they would have blown up the mosque if we had not done so, Mr Singh will argue. Sure. Just as the hijackers of IC 814 would have blown up the plane with the hostages had the NDA Government not released three terrorists. Mr Singh, representing the Congress in discussions with the Government, would repeatedly assert one point: Do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of hostages — something which he forgets today. Strong men have strong memories, Prime Minister.
-- Blog on this issue at: kanchangupta.blogspot.com, Contact Writer at: kanchangupta@rocketmail.com
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