SONIA MANIA

UPA’s second incarnation, which is to complete a year shortly, has floundered – and unbelievably so - right from the word go and every step was a faulty and clueless step with the avoidable ruckus over the Women’s Bill being the latest. Though it is a coalition of parties, purportedly sharing same ideological platform with some differences of course, there was no apparent cohesion in the functioning of the coalition and it was in complete disarray.

Forgetting the fight by the DMK for sharing the spoils of power by trying to induct the entire first family of the party even before the swearing-in of the government, none of the other allies like Trinamool Congress, NCP were on the same page. Mamta is acting like a paramour of the UPA and she can’t stand even a suggestive wink at the Left by the Congress. Congress is supposed to be leading the coalition; but the turn of events makes it appear as though the allies or those who provide crutches from outside were setting the agenda. Otherwise, why should the Congress go to the rescue of Lalu in the disproportionate assets case after all the drama that he enacted?

When the coalition partners are pulling in different directions it is obviously the power that is acting as a glue to bind them together. We have seen it while our Prime Minister committed blunders at Sharm-el-Sheikh when he agreed to include Balochistan in the Indo-Pak talks and to delink terrorism from talks and he had to fend for himself on the floor of the House. The Opposition went for his jugular for acting under US pressure. But, none of the allies came to his rescue. Of course, the Congress party was also distancing itself from the joint statement. The excuse was that the statement was poorly drafted. Ironically, the inept draftsman is now the National Security Advisor!

Price rise is another area where the government has been put on the mat by the allies of the ruling coalition. DMK and Mamta are out have their pound of flesh for their support. Sharad Pawar, though not for his failure to control the prices of essential commodities, atleast for his ridiculous statements, must have been shown the door. First, he said that he was not an astrologer to predict when the prices would come down. He followed this up with a series of insensitive statements like middle class can afford the prices; rise in the income of rural population led to price rise; global phenomenon etc. Because of the mounting pressure from the Opposition, the Prime Minister had to confess there was failure in containing the price of sugar which, according to some, was the result of a scam. But, he couldn’t do a thing to his colleague whose colossal failure on the price front has done great damage to the government.

Home Minister Chidambaram’s mid-night statement on Telangana must take the cake for the government’s inexplicable haste, poor communication and lack of political foresight. The entire state of Andhra Pradesh has been pushed into the precipice of a cliffhanger. A state which was in the forefront of development has come to a standstill. Employment generation in manufacturing, IT, infrastructure and construction are all down in Hyderabad with companies putting their plans on hold due to political uncertainty, according to a national daily which quoted the outcome of a survey conducted among 1000 companies across 11 industry segments. Leave alone the adverse impact on the economic front, the Congress party itself is hopelessly divided and the partymen are speaking in different voices and are bold enough to cock a snook at the high command. Even on Telangana issue, the allies were not on the same side as that of the Congress.

Now comes the Women’s Reservation Bill which greatly embarrassed the government for its abysmal performance in the Rajya Sabha. If we have to believe Mamta Banerjee, even allies were kept in the dark. It was not just poor floor coordination or lack of strategy that led to a ruckus in the House. It was the Congress party’s arrogance and greed to corner all the credit for the passage of the Bill - a historical event and a milestone in the nation’s post-independence journey - made it to come out with egg all over the face on Monday. There was no choice for the government but to push through the bill on Tuesday as otherwise the damage to the image of the government would have been colossal.

A government which is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha and which does not command comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha should have taken into confidence all the parties – national or regional – before the passage of the Bill. But true to its culture it did not want to take everyone on board. The sycophantic party that wanted to “empower” the party’s first family head with all the credit thought that they could take other parties for granted. Quite deservedly, it was humiliated due to its vote bank mindset and greed for browny points.

In fact, in the absence of two-thirds majority for itself, the Congress was dependent on the BJP and the Left, especially when its own outside supporters like SP, RJD deserted the party leaving aside Mamta’s tantrums. In such a scenario, the government should have carried all the parties with this exercise so that the successful passage of the Bill would have given credit to the will of the people and sense of the House. But, it was so graceless on the part of the Congress spokespersons to shower encomiums on their leader. When the national channels, known for their sycophancy to 10 Janpath, rushed to Madam for exclusive, she was only talking about Rajiv’s vision and thanked her partymen. She did not have the decency to thank the Opposition for their unconditional support. The problem with the Congress culture is that anything good can happen to the nation only because of the Gandhi-Nehru family. Thank God, the Women’s Bill was not named Sonia Gandhi Women’s Reservation Bill just like every scheme/programme/institution is named after one or the other members of the family.