ROLLING PRIME MINISTERS!

SUNNY THOMAS

I am not Anna Hazare (as teenagers’ T-shirts declare); I am not Arun Kejriwal; I am not even Kiran Bedi! Nor am I one of those gullible Indians who believed a handful of fellow-countrymen could end corruption by a road show near Jantar Mantar. I know one gentleman who tried to eliminate corruption from this country single-handedly. He happened to be the home minister in Lal Bahadhur Shastri’s Cabinet, and his name Gulzarilal Nanda. And two years later, he disappeared without a trace from the political scenario.

I vehemently disagree with everything Kejriwal says or does, but his reply to members of Parliament regarding his dishonouring Parliament merits our time:    

 The present Lok Sabha has 162 parliamentarians on whom 522 criminal issues are lodged. Out of these, 76 are heinous crimes. Murder cases on 14, attempt to murder cases on 20, fraud charges on 11, kidnapping charges on 13. In addition to these, there are many parliamentarians on whom corruption charges are lodged.

In 2009, Congress gave tickets to 117 people with criminal background, out of which 44 got elected. BJP gave tickets to 116 people with criminal background, out of which 44 got elected. Other parties too have proactively given tickets to the tainted. The court has charge sheeted a good many of them with heinous crimes.

In 2004 elections, 128 people in Lok Sabha were with criminal backgrounds. In 2009 elections their number went up to 162. By this progression, the day is not far when the majority of the parliament will consist of people with criminal background…

Think of 2014, notwithstanding the bravado of some political parties that they want a general election right now. The greatest danger the country faces is a pack of regional parties bereft of a national vision or goal coming to power. A whimsical Mamata Banerjee, a capricious Jayalalithaa, and a Navin Pet-naik (Maoists are his pets) coming to Delhi to rule the country could be the catastrophe of the century. Mamata could turn Bengal into a Bihar by driving away all industry and sealing the job prospects of the youth. Jaya’s understanding of the world ends within the borders of Tamil Nadu, and her `by Tamils, of Tamils and for Tamils policy’, however laudable, may open the Pandora’s Box. Navin’s dilly-dallying with terrorists is tantamount to riding the tiger.  

A practical solution to the impending disaster is – however impractical it might look today – for Congress and BJP to forge a Reforms Agenda to make India the second greatest economic superpower. (Politicians are the bane of this country but we can’t do without politics or politicians). In BJP we have leaders like Arun Jaitley, a prime ministerial material, and Sushma Swaraj, the ideal compromise candidate; in Congress the promising Rahul Gandhi and the man of all seasons, Pranab Mukherjee, who should not be allowed to retire before he is a hundred years young. Draft Nitish Kumar for good governance and Mulayam for stability. The Prime Minister’s office should be a rolling one, one year per person, and be treated as the office of a chairperson rather than the omnipotent one.        

It could be experimentally proved in India that rolling Prime Ministers make better prime ministers than the non-rolling ones because each has to deliver the goodies in just one year. And the time for Rahul Gandhi to meet Akhilesh Yadav, notwithstanding the acrimony, is not after 2014 but now. Good personal relationship fosters good policies quintessential for the country’s progress. But have you heard of Digvijay Singh’s ambitious political plans? After losing his home state to BJP and helping and advising Rahul Gandhi to lose UP, Digy is setting up a political consultancy, cutting across party lines, on how to win state elections: he has all the case studies live

The year 2014 will be here even before we realize it. What is impossible in 2012 will be possible in 2014, the East meeting the West!

PRESIDENT OBAMA

 `ARRESTED’!  

By SUNNY THOMAS

Will someone tell her she is the Chief Minister of Bengal? For one, the Governor actually forgot to tell her that when she takes the oath as Chief Minister, she in fact becomes the Chief Minister. The coterie around her is keeping it a closely guarded secret for reasons better known for them. Not even our honest Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seems to have communicated it to her.

 

The rumour mills have it that all foreign dignitaries from President Barack Obama to President Asif Ali Zardari, from Russian Prime Minister (and President-elect) Vladimir Putin to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and from Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadineja to Maldives President Mohammed Waheed are avoiding destination Kolkata for fear of getting arrested by Mamata Banerjee.  Just imagine, American newspapers coming out with the banner headline: PRESIDENT OBAMA ARRESTED IN KOLKATA! Cartoonists the world over have stopped cartooning Mamata for fear of Trinamul Fatwa!   

Strangely, she still blames instead of taking the blame on herself as a responsible leader! By the time she understands the Chief Minister’s role is different from that of the Opposition leader, she would actually be sitting in the opposition. And Brinda Karat, her successor, would be unveiling a statue of Mamata in the Writers’ Building for helping the Marxists to come back to power so soon.   

In Bengal, the police are the final arbiter of the freedom of the Press, and Jayalalithaa and Navin Patnaik, too, would like to strengthen the democracy by adopting this commendable policy in their respective states. When Jaya and Navin are at it, can Modi be far behind? 

  

What bedevils his critics is that Narendra Modi emerges cleaner and cleaner after every inquiry commission report, as if he is a model for the best detergent soap advertisement that claims to wash the toughest stains in a matter of minutes. Short of declaring nothing happened in Gujarat in 2002, commission after commission has upheld the exemplary conduct of Modi. At this rate, by 2014 Modi will be India’s cleanest political leader ever after the Father of the Nation.

Politics always has its comedy of errors. Tiger Raj Thackeray roared at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar daring him enter his den, Mumbai. Pat came the retort that he needs no visa (read, Raj’s courtesy) to visit any part of India. In effect, Nitish caught the tiger by its tail that fortunately did not come off!

Count Akhilesh Yadav among the sensible leaders (forget for a moment Raja Bayya and his party goon’s). Like Nitish, he keeps away from vendetta politics and engages himself with the development of his state.

Where is the Indian democracy heading for? Will it be hijacked by a pack of predators whose rapacious capacity for bloodshed rivals Pol Pot’s and Hitler’s? Will the House of Adam Smith that Manmohan Singh built be demolished overnight? Will India, the most favoured country after China to attract foreign capital, witness a drought, dashing the hope of millions for better standards of living – more jobs and upward mobility?    

PRESIDENT SAM PITRODA!

SUNNY THOMAS

If this time, Pranab Mukherjee is overlooked for Presidency, he must be awarded the Bharat Ratna! His only fault is he has become indispensable for UPA. Cutting across party lines, he would be triumphant should he contest because he has a personal equation with all MPs, especially those who matter. But let’s not cause a political tremor epicentred around 10 Janpath.   

With his eloquence and dignity, Dr Karan Singh would have made a Princely President ten years ago, and he still retains a considerable amount of his charm. But he was seen politically incorrect at crucial times when the country was looking for a President. Proximity to one politician is anathema to others, and Dr Singh has not cultivated a fine blend of political balance that instinctively recommends him to all political parties.    

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari is the rightful choice and an ideal candidate for Rastrapathi Bhavan, and his studied neutrality is much admired in the political circles. But in politics, decisions are seldom taken on merit, and it is emotions and a flicker of excitement built around a person or an ideology that wins the day. And equally relevant is paranoia that Jinnah exploited and got away with, carving out a slice of the country, and that the exponents of Hindutva adroitly played to get a slice of power. But paranoia often burns out leaving a trail of disillusionment.

Rest assured the next President is not going to be a gadfly. When endangered, Congress is the best political party on earth, but in comfortable majority, the Congressmen have a propensity to be the worst! The man behind the mobile phone revolution, Sam Pitroda has no enemies but all admirers! Every political party would like to have a slice of Sam on their side. As though envisioning the political scenario of 2012, the man born as Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda is renamed Sam Pitroda!   

Just think of it, Virginia Wolf is not a wolf but a woman named Virginia Stephen, Marilyn Monroe is Norma Jean Mortenson(Baker), Woody Allen is Allen Stewart Konigsberg, Tom Cruise is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, Mother Teresa is Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Che Guevara is Ernesto Guevara, and Ho Chi Minh is Nguyen Tat Thanh. The games that names play are indeed intriguing. 

Symbolically, the India democracy is far ahead of its American counterpart. Almost quarter of a century before Hillary Clinton was launched into the Presidential race orbit, we had Indira Gandhi adding a new nation in 1971 to the comity of world nations! A decade ahead of a Black man in White House, India had a meritorious President from the Backward Class. It seems India is the testing lab for America, because it does precisely what America is going to do next.      

What President Bill Gates could do to America is what President Sam Pitroda could do to India. He could inspire a generation of technocrats to be innovative, inventive and entrepreneurial, turning Bangalore, Hyderabad and satellite Delhi into Silicon Valleys.  This in turn could raise nation’s competitive edge on the global market.

Looking back, Dr Rajendra Prasad remains the ideal President, who could act as a counterweight to the all-powerful Prime Minister. In fact, if there was one President who could match the authority of the Prime Minister, it was Dr Prasad; but he could never match the popularity and hero-worship that Nehru commanded, which was an envy of monarchs and Presidents and Prime Ministers the world over.

Dr S Radhakrishnan was the tallest of all Presidents, not only by virtue of his physical height but also by virtue of his erudition and intellectual status. He was of the class of George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Winston Churchill; and if all the Presidents were of his stature, India would have enjoyed greater respect in the global scenario.  

Dr Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed died in office; one was a scholar, the other the quintessential gentleman who could never say `no’. So Ahmed could not say `no’ to the Declaration of Emergency, for which he was criticized. Because of his unwavering loyalty to Mrs Gandhi, the President had to endure the nickname `the rubber stamp’, which R K Laxman’s genius capitalized in a cartoon showing a peon bringing the President when he was asked to bring the rubber stamp, and the caption: You brought him here, I only asked you to bring the rubber stamp!  

As Presidents R Venkataraman and K R Narayanan showed maturity and steered clear of all controversies. Abdul Kalam was an eternal mentor and youth icon, whose book The Ignited Minds remained a bestseller even after his demitting the office.  

The only contemporary politician who could make a difference to Rashtrapathi Bhavan is Menaka Gandhi, who would turn the palatial mansion and the Mogul Gardens into a pet sanctuary, especially for dogs and cats!        

   

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S SILENCE

SUNNY THOMAS

Short of demanding a statue for himself in the Army Headquarters, so that posterity in search of inspiration can come beneath it and salute him, the general did everything to extol himself. Yet the Supreme Court did not recognize the flame of his eternal youth; and the defence ministry thought he was not so indispensable; and, worst of all, parliament did not rise to a man in giving him a standing ovation which he surely deserved.  

His critics say If honour was his primary concern, he would have resigned the day the Supreme Court gave the verdict on his date of birth, but he did not. If probity was his primary concern, he would have got the man who offered him the bribe arrested, ordered an enquiry, and blacklisted the firm, which he did not, suggesting he was willing to go along with the system which we all know is corrupt. If national security was his primary concern, why wait till the fag end of his tenure? He should have written the letter that he wrote to the PM in the first week of his assuming the office.  

President Harry Truman sacked General McArthur, the hero of the Second World War, for reporting late at the Oval Office. The American Senators did not raise a hue and cry, nor the nation outraged. The President meant business and the Armed Forces got the message. Truman was also the President who ordered the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because the Japanese won’t surrender (which was the most disgraceful thing for Japanese to do) and the casualties went on mounting on both sides. There was one more reason for dropping the atom bomb: it was just made and not tested, and war was the best time to test it! And the rest is history.

George Washington’s silence was far more eloquent than all the speeches made at the Philadelphia Conference, wrote his biographer. The dignity and decorum with which our own Rahul Dravid retired and made his farewell speech at Mumbai should set stands for our generals, parliamentarians and bureaucrats. The Greatest After the Berlin Wall, Rahul Dravid has a beautiful mind, which empowered him to do everything he did with a touch of Greco-Roman style! He is eloquence and dignity personified with or without his bat.   

Cheap behaviour from the occupant of an exalted office lowers the dignity and prestige of not only his office but also the institution he represents. If decision making has become synonymous with indecision making, that’s how the ministry of Defence responded in its murky hour. But the beauty of Indian democracy is that the members of Parliament, notorious for their unruly, irrepressible, even irresponsible behavior, showed exemplary conduct while the issue was debated.  

  

But it must be said in fairness to the General that he found support from retired men in uniform, which means everything is not all right at the top brass of the Armed Forces. The synchronization of the three forces at the apex level needs review and restructuring so that one chief does not step into the toes of the other two.

It is known to everyone that defence procurement and election funding are inextricably linked, with middle men and middle-middle men and middle-middle-middle men making hay while the `son’ shines! All parties that have tasted power know the nitty-gritty’s that outsiders will never understand. Men like George Fernandez were seasoned politicians and masters of the craft while novices like Rajiv Gandhi got stuck and did not know how to come out. The young visionary who introduced computer brain power that took India to new frontiers and the leader who envisioned economic liberalization which his successors implemented is today remembered for the wrong reason, the right ones erased from the memory.  

The problem with defence procurement is that transparency is not always possible. The level of technical competence needed is pretty high that even experts might find it difficult to arrive at the right decision. Throwing open such matters to the public would mean emotions and ideologies taking precedence over competencies – not to speak of demagogues conducting street shows in favour of their brand. Expert matters should be left to experts while some political scrutiny should be done by MPs rising above party lines.  

Nuclear deterrence is the key to future wars, and stockpiling conventional weapons beyond a point is wasting precious national resources. Which does not mean we should be caught awkwardly. Substandard ammunitions not reaching even half the target is often the buried truth. Greed and defence do make bad bedfellows.

Should our Generals be encouraged to meet the press every week and give interviews as many times a month as they wish? Should Air Force chief and Naval chief be encouraged to do the same? Television channels would surely love it! But shouldn’t there be a code of conduct for Generals and the Chief of staff? India Today’s cover stories (Self Before Service, and General Singh’s War on India) indeed display a rare political insight. Just come to think of it, Field Marshals S H F J Manekshaw and K N Cariappa and Gen Thimayya and Gen J N Choudhuri have sat on the same seat belittled by Singh!