Wherever it looks, the Congress, it would appear, sees the ghosts of its past staring back at the party, immobilising it and freezing it into action. On December 11, anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare held a token fast to protest against the Congress-led Government playing ducks and drakes with the Lokpal Bill and ignoring its commitment. While most of the Opposition attended the debate that took place during the fast, the Congress did not do so, although Mr Hazare had invited the party. Probably, the Congress saw in the turnout at Jantar Mantar a threat to its Government. Senior BJP leader LK Advani’s Jan Chetana Yatra, on the other hand, found itself a fitting climax at Mr Hazare’s anshan at Jantar Mantar.
By then, however, the Congress had lost even its last shirt, as the humiliating retreat it had to face when the entire country rose to protest against its unilateral FDI in multi-brand retail adventure, stands proof. The people, however, extended their wholehearted support to Mr Hazare’s protest — typically, the middle classes once again took the lead in supporting him.
Little wonder then that within the Congress the erosion of self-confidence has been particularly deep. So much so that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was shying away from Parliament while opposition to the Government’s decision to open up multi-brand retail to foreign direct investment was reverberating throughout the fir-st two weeks of the Winter Session. Meanwhile, with Congress president Sonia Gandhi refusing to publicly back the decision, it was clear that there were segments within the Congress that were not on the same page with Mr Singh on the FDI in multi-brand retail issue.
Moreover, recent developments in the 2G Spectrum scam have only made things worse for the Government, with the needle of suspicion now pointing towards Union Minister for Home Affairs P Chidambaram. Also, the paralysis in decision-making at the highest levels of leadership that has provoked 14 eminent industrialists to publicly arraign the Government has only served to further erode public faith in the UPA.
And, all this has been happening against the backdrop of steadily worsening economic indicators. Consequently, Indian industry is holding on to cash but not investing it in the country. It prefers to invest abroad — surely one more sign that India Inc has lost faith in the Government’s ability to move the economy forward.
Now, as the rising tide of the people’s movement threatens to engulf the real source of power in the Congress, the party’s high command has begun countering it by raising fears of anarchy taking over parliamentary democracy. There is no doubt that Congress leaders have exploited the over-enthusiasm on the part of Team Anna to settle important legislations on the streets. In fact, Team Anna should take this as a warning and curb its enthusiasm. Also, the team should realise that the Congress is simply waiting for it to make a statement that would appear to be a close call to anarchy.
But the Congress that is slamming Team Anna for its reference to street meetings must do some self-introspection as well. After all, it is Ms Gandhi who has hand-picked the members of the National Advisory Council, who are unelected representatives from civil society and given gave them the power to draft policies. The elected Government has been asked to follow NAC’s directions. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is the NAC’s brainchild, and it has led to huge wastage of public money and fuelled corruption. Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar is on record asking for MNREGS to be suspended at least during the harvest season because the scheme keeps away the much-needed labour force from farming activities.
Meanwhile, starting with the Prime Minister down to Government officials, there is much grumbling over the fallout of the Right to Information Act, with many asking for its application to be restricted. The NAC, however, is blocking any change to RTI. All these developments seem to point to the fact that Mr Singh’s democratically elected Government has become subservient to an authority that does not even have parliamentary sanction.
The Government’s most recent cause for concern is the National Food Security Bill. The Bill has gone back and forth between the NAC that mooted it and the Government for almost a year now. Repeatedly, the Government has told the NAC that, with fiscal deficit becoming difficult to manage and tax and non-tax revenues falling due to the economic slowdown, subsidised food entitlement has to be restricted to a manageable level. Ultimately, the Government has been forced to delay the Bill.
Even the judiciary has found the occasion to jump in. The Congress and its supporting NGOs first eroded the authority and constitutional responsibility of the State Governments by taking the issue of law and order in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh — both BJP ruled states — to the Supreme Court. When the court overruled the Gujarat Government and enforced its own version of investigation into the 2002 violence, the ‘secularist’ crowd applauded the decision and the Union Government smiled. When the court intervened in the law and order set-up envisaged by the elected State Government of Chhattisgarh and set it aside, the Union Government applauded the move and hailed it as a victory for liberty.
But when the Supreme Court took over the monitoring of the 2G scam investigation and enforced its own investigation on the black money trail, Mr Singh’s Government fretted and fumed. Now, the civil society movement and an assertive judiciary are all seemingly converging to corner the Government, while the Prime Minister is exposed day after day as being incapable or unwilling to lead the country.
The nation sees Mr Singh as a hapless Prime Minister whose Government is virtually led by the mother-son duo that heads the Congress. The country’s industrialists and economists have publicly expressed their disenchantment with the paralysis within the administration. The data of financial institutional investors withdrawing their investment from India shows that even international businesses no longer believe Mr Singh and his Cabinet are in charge.
The debacle over FDI in multi-brand retail has graphically exposed the Government for what it really is, and for where the real power lies. Now, Mr Hazare is hammering the last nail into the Government’s coffin.
