Diagnosing The Doctor

The RTI and NREGA were transformative initiatives. But Dr Singh also weakened Indian sovereignty by militarily aligning with the US and Israel

SANDEEP PANDEY

CIVIL SOCIETY

DRMANMOHAN Singh has survived a full five-year term in office as PM, itself an achievement in the post-Indira Gandhi era of coalition politics. It is a different matter that he

Illustration : Anand Naorem

jettisoned a more respectable and ideologically sound support from the Left Front in exchange for opportunistic support from the Samajwadi Party on the issue of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. For him, the deal was an issue of prestige. Defending it, he was at his most assertive, launching an attack on LK Advani for his role in the Babri demolition.

Dr Manmohan Singh will be remembered as the harbinger of the neo-liberal economic policies of liberalisation-privatisation- globalisation (LPG) in this country, first as RBIGovernor, then as Finance Minister, and finally, as the PM. However, it is ironical that towards the end of his term, he is abdicating his responsibility for the results of these policies, even though his party is desperately trying to project them as a success by launching the Jai Ho campaign. But isn’t Jai Ho just another name for India Shining? Actually, he gave indications of his declining confidence in these policies in two meetings of the CII, much before the global recession set in abroad and Satyam happened at home, by making utterances which scandalised corporate barons. He suggested that CEOs consider placing a voluntary ceiling on salaries. He said that the gap between the rich and poor would produce social unrest. He said that for an unemployed youth, a nine percent growth rate didn’t mean anything. He added that CEOsmust not use their wealth for personal consumption only, but should also consider using it for the general good of society. He invoked the forgotten ‘trusteeship principle’ of Mahatma Gandhi, which probably no politician in independent India has ever mentioned. Now, these thoughts would make a very sound policy if the objective was to create a humane and equitable society, instead of elevating the growth rate. But coming from Manmohan Singh, these appeared out of place. It was due to frustration on account of his inability to control farmer suicides, in spite of maintaining a very good economic growth rate. His statements went against the basic training that he received as an economist and, probably his colleagues, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and P Chidambaram, who were with him in implementing the LPG policies, wouldn’t endorse these utopian ideas either. Nevertheless, any economist would agree that the effect of neo-liberal policies has been the widening gap between the rich and poor. In fact, before the Mumbai attack, Manmohan Singh said more than once, that naxalism is a bigger threat to India than terrorism.

Dr Singh failed to prevent the spread of either naxalism or terrorism. His policy of using brute force to crush them produced a backlash. Irom Sharmila continues to fast for the ninth year, demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The government doesn’t know how to deal with people who take up arms, and it doesn’t know how to deal with the most peaceful protests. It goofs up by keeping Dr Binayak Sen in jail as a naxalite sympathiser, without any evidence against him. On the other hand, convicted persons like Navjot Singh Sidhu, Shibu Soren and Sanjay Dutt have no problem in pursuing their political goals.

By continuing to support the US policy of war against terror in addition to the economic policies of LPG, Manmohan Singh has helped the difference between the BJP and Congress Party to disappear. The post-Mumbai response of the government appeared to be to deny the terrorism plank to the BJP. Its tough stand against the Pakistani Government forced Pakistani politicians to retract their initial cooperative response and stalled the Indo- Pak peace process, an area in which Manmohan Singh made his most significant contribution. The resumption of the Srinagar- Muzaffarabad bus service in 2005, and the opening of trade routes, produced a thaw. The two governments were on the verge of a solution on Kashmir. Manmohan Singh was able to achieve so much because his heart ruled over bureaucraticmilitary thinking. This is probably the only area where he took decisions as an ordinary human being, his family having been affected by partition just like Musharraf’s was, instead of as a modern trained expert.

BUT HE has compromised India’s sovereignty by signing the Indo-US nuclear deal. His own Planning Commission doesn’t think that nuclear energy has a future. He was an ardent supporter of renewable sources of energy, like any right-thinking individual, until he was invited to Washington in 2005. By agreeing to become the junior military ally of the US and Israel, he reversed the policy of Nehru-Shastri-Indira-Rajiv of maintaining a distance from the US and being the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement. Eager to sign the deal, he lost out not only on Iran but also on Myanmar. India hoped that by ending support to Aung San Su Kyi, Myanmar might consider giving it gas. This would have made it easier to turn down the Iranian offer. In the end, Myanmar gave its gas to China and India lost face on the issue of support to the pro-democracy movement. Manmohan Singh also demolished the image of India as the peace-loving, sovereign supporter of the people of the Third World, and made it the target of Islamic fundamentalists. His government couldn’t control terrorist incidents in the country, and his police continued to implicate innocent Muslim youth, thereby producing further alienation among Muslims.

The coming generations will remember the Manmohan Singh Government for the RTI Act and NREGA, two of the most pro-people Acts legislated so far in independent India. Sonia Gandhi probably deserves the credit for these more than the PM. Manmohan Singh was supportive of the attempts to scuttle the RTI Act through amendments until Sonia Gandhi intervened. But these two Acts will have the same transformative effect on governance as probably the implementation of Mandal Commission report had on the politics of this country, even though presently the bureaucracy, the judiciary and the ruling class with vested interests are working overtime to kill the spirit of these Acts. The RTI and the social audit provision in NREGA have opened a window for the common citizen where she can participate in the democratic system, rather than merely be a voter once in five years and a mute spectator in between two elections.

(Pandey is a Magasaysay Award-winner)