With the advent of 24 x 7 television in India and ‘live’ pictures being beamed right into our bedrooms (or wherever you happened to have plonked your TV set) the drama played out in the Parliament, during the trust motion, was taken to an entirely different level – a surreal, supremely sad multi act play.
The Nuclear Deal, rather than being issue of extreme national importance, that needed debate and civilised exchange of views, became an ego issue for the Left parties – an issue so emotive to Mrs. and Mr. Karat, the revulsion to the US so profound that they had had to try all they could to bring the government down.
I was listening to the fire-brand Cho Ramaswamy, and I couldn’t agree more that Manmohan Singh is a straight and honest political fellow – a man who has had the courage of standing by his conviction (right or wrong only time will tell), and one who was ready to walk the walk if the government came crashing down. The other guy who stood tall among all the muck that was flying around was Somnath Chatterjee – the Speaker of the house –and now an expelled member of CPI(M). It’s rare to see in Indian politics people honouring the sanctity of the chair that they occupy. Hat’s off to him.
You couldn’t say that of any political party. The ‘nuclear deal’ became the Samajwadi Party’s golden steed to ride into the UPA vacuum left by the Left, and with what sweet timing! Left to themselves both the SP and the Congress would have been almost certainly obliterated from the Hindi/UP heartland in the next polls. Some politicians, on the other hand, started giving the deal a ‘religious’ hue. A certain political cretin was heard mouthing that the deal was bad for Muslims. Hey! If the deal does finally end up giving us much needed electricity, the government of the day would find it extremely taxing to keep power away from Muslim households, while the rest of the populace basks in nuclear reflected ‘light’.
Then there are political vermin like Sibhu Soren, the guy with unkempt hair, who put his party’s support for sale. Thus he ended up with two ministerial berths and a deputy chief- ministership for his son and God knows how much cash. Mayawati, on the other hand, demonstrated her political astuteness, however much we may dislike her personally. She camped herself firmly in Delhi, getting the first whiff of the discontent and wonder of wonders was able to convince the wily Deva Gowda and Ajit Singh to bat for her. The myopic Left projected her as a future Prime Minister, leaving a lot of people, including me, feeling how much of a battering can India take.
The BJP came off the worst from the conflict. Their mind was not in the battle, after all the deal was their brainchild. Advani was the reluctant general, who had no option but to play the role of the opposition to the hilt. The BJP could have carved for itself a much neater position, had they stopped being an opposition for the sake of opposition and played a constructive role. Manmohan, in retrospect shouldn’t also have taken umbrage at Advani and should have understood the latter’s political compulsions and need to play to the gallery.
Net-net, I wouldn’t say Manmohan has emerged stronger, since he along with the Congress employed every trick in the book to stick to power – however desperate that may have sounded. You may say they had a point to prove, but that was inconsequential to the avowed moralistic and nationalistic position that he had taken by going ahead with engaging with the IAEA. A lot of sheen got wiped off his armour by the guiles that the Congress party resorted to.
There is a silver lining in the cloud though – in the inflation ridden days that we live in, it’s a surprise that the price of our MPs have plummeted to Rs. 3 Crores (insead of Rs. 30 Crores). On a more serious note, we will now hopefully get to see more economic openness from this government and passage of bills that were held back due to the Left opposition.
The Nuclear Deal, rather than being issue of extreme national importance, that needed debate and civilised exchange of views, became an ego issue for the Left parties – an issue so emotive to Mrs. and Mr. Karat, the revulsion to the US so profound that they had had to try all they could to bring the government down.
I was listening to the fire-brand Cho Ramaswamy, and I couldn’t agree more that Manmohan Singh is a straight and honest political fellow – a man who has had the courage of standing by his conviction (right or wrong only time will tell), and one who was ready to walk the walk if the government came crashing down. The other guy who stood tall among all the muck that was flying around was Somnath Chatterjee – the Speaker of the house –and now an expelled member of CPI(M). It’s rare to see in Indian politics people honouring the sanctity of the chair that they occupy. Hat’s off to him.
You couldn’t say that of any political party. The ‘nuclear deal’ became the Samajwadi Party’s golden steed to ride into the UPA vacuum left by the Left, and with what sweet timing! Left to themselves both the SP and the Congress would have been almost certainly obliterated from the Hindi/UP heartland in the next polls. Some politicians, on the other hand, started giving the deal a ‘religious’ hue. A certain political cretin was heard mouthing that the deal was bad for Muslims. Hey! If the deal does finally end up giving us much needed electricity, the government of the day would find it extremely taxing to keep power away from Muslim households, while the rest of the populace basks in nuclear reflected ‘light’.
Then there are political vermin like Sibhu Soren, the guy with unkempt hair, who put his party’s support for sale. Thus he ended up with two ministerial berths and a deputy chief- ministership for his son and God knows how much cash. Mayawati, on the other hand, demonstrated her political astuteness, however much we may dislike her personally. She camped herself firmly in Delhi, getting the first whiff of the discontent and wonder of wonders was able to convince the wily Deva Gowda and Ajit Singh to bat for her. The myopic Left projected her as a future Prime Minister, leaving a lot of people, including me, feeling how much of a battering can India take.
The BJP came off the worst from the conflict. Their mind was not in the battle, after all the deal was their brainchild. Advani was the reluctant general, who had no option but to play the role of the opposition to the hilt. The BJP could have carved for itself a much neater position, had they stopped being an opposition for the sake of opposition and played a constructive role. Manmohan, in retrospect shouldn’t also have taken umbrage at Advani and should have understood the latter’s political compulsions and need to play to the gallery.
Net-net, I wouldn’t say Manmohan has emerged stronger, since he along with the Congress employed every trick in the book to stick to power – however desperate that may have sounded. You may say they had a point to prove, but that was inconsequential to the avowed moralistic and nationalistic position that he had taken by going ahead with engaging with the IAEA. A lot of sheen got wiped off his armour by the guiles that the Congress party resorted to.
There is a silver lining in the cloud though – in the inflation ridden days that we live in, it’s a surprise that the price of our MPs have plummeted to Rs. 3 Crores (insead of Rs. 30 Crores). On a more serious note, we will now hopefully get to see more economic openness from this government and passage of bills that were held back due to the Left opposition.
1 comment:
Yes, Mayawati has emerged strongest from this needless muddle. Commies stand isolated, the BJP weakened and the Congress quite confused, finding a dominant SP in its bed.
I think the only guy to emerge victorious is Manmohan. And he and India deserve it.
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