WHOSE TERRORISM IS IT 

ANYWAY?

SUNNY THOMAS

Every time there is a terror attack in any part of the country, the Opposition guns for Union Home Minister P Chidambaram. But when the home ministry brought a bill to deal with the threat squarely, there is a revolt of chief ministers, some of whose states are the most vulnerable to Maoist insurgency.

It was intriguing that Orissa chief minister Navin Patnaik released Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s protest letter to the prime minister. And it was even more intriguing that Mamata absented herself from the inaugural of the National Security Guard hub in her own capital, perhaps taking the cue from Nitish Kumar who absented himself from the meeting to discuss Maoist menace in the wake of 75 BSF jawans butchered in Chhattisgarh. The problem with these chief ministers is that they want stern action against Kashmir (read, Islamic) terrorism but prefer to go soft on home-grown terrorism bordering on patronizing it.

    

The revolt of chief ministers was a coup of sorts, a full-dressed rehearsal for General Elections 2014, with battle lines clearly drawn. The heroine of the drama was of course Mamata, the minister for mishaps. As Railway minister, her tenure recorded the maximum number of rail mishaps; and as Health minister of her state, the maximum number of hospital deaths occurred during her able stewardship.

After routing the Marxists in Bengal, Mamata expected her due share of glory in the national arena, but got little. Fretting and fuming in Kolkata, she played every trick in the book to get noticed. But UPA has its own problems to worry about. For one, UPA II is a pale shadow of UPA I, with no one at the helm of affairs, except when there is a threat perception. Sonia Gandhi battling with her health problems, her involvement is minimal. And all UPA’s terminal illness is referred to (Dr) Pranab Mukherjee, who would one day, running out of patience, yell, ‘Enough is enough. UPA or no UPA, I am calling it a day!’

Post-Kalmadi Games, Dr Singh’s Cabinet works on a Fire Fighting model! With ageless Generals, court strictures, return of 2G Spectrum, Adarsh shame, Kalmadi himself wanting to run for Olympics, and the ghost of Anna Hazare haunting North Bloc, governance is conspicuous by its absence! Each Bigwig in Singh’s Cabinet is a law unto himself, leaving little scope for consensus. How can there be a consensus within Congress when there is no consensus within the Cabinet? How can there be a consensus within UPA when Congress itself cannot afford one? The paradox is the left hand doesn’t know what the left hand itself is doing!  

But Mamata has a point. Any sensible ruling party at the Centre should for its own longevity keep the allies happy. Remember how well Atal Bihari Vajpayee managed the show! Tehelkha before which Watergate is peanuts, and coffin scam (‘Where corpses themselves were fighting for coffins!’, as reported in The Times of India) did no damage to his government. The media was well subdued and nowhere did we read Vajpayee complaining about coalition dharma! Politics, Dr Singh, is a different ball game where you let the tigers prowl so that paper tigers (or digital tigers) don’t have their kill.         

In an ego-driven Super Cabinet, political expediency has no place. So Mamata’s misplaced expectations have driven her to the Alternative Front, where she will find more leg space and ego space. The Alternative Front is speciously similar to the Third Front, except that BJP is a partner and the invisible moving force. Certain business houses want to make Narendra Modi the next prime minister. So Patnaik is the proxy who will ensure that the Alternative Front is crystallized by giving space to all political parties, as a grand alliance against Congress. 

Home for Mamata, External Affairs for Jayalalithaa, and statues and culture for Maya should keep Madame Vanities happy. So Mulayam and Karuna and our comrades are left out. So the battle lines are drawn.

Congress will be facing its most formidable challenge since Narasimha Rao decimated the party. But still in power, it can shower goodies on the poor, adopt bold and pro-poor policies, and keep the price line under check. Done imaginatively and shrewdly, Congress still can thwart the grand alliance.     

But the happiest man of 2014 will be Dr Manmohan Singh. No more Kalmadis, Rajas, and Chavans to worry about, and Anna Hazare’s health to be anxious about. But for these men, the two-term prime minister would have ended his career in a trail of glory!