Manmohan stays the course, but will his party enjoy its fruits? | Girish Nikam

Published on 07-07-2008 In General

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Manmohan stays the course, but will his party enjoy its fruits?

What does one mean by "staying the course"? Ask Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh. For someone who was considered a rank outsider when he was picked up from nowhere by then Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao and handed over the coveted Finance ministry, in 1991, he has come a long way. As the chief architect of the economic reforms, he faced enormous pressures, both within his party and outside. No one knew whether what he had embarked upon---opening up the economy and ending the license-quota raj and a slew of other measures--- was the best thing that was happening to this country. Criticisms flew thick and fast about him being a stooge of the international financial institutions of which he was a part not too long back, and that he was playing their tunes.

He however stuck to his job, with a big dose of encouragement from his mentor Rao, and of course his occasional threats to resign, notwithstanding. Years later, after he became the Prime Minister, when this columnist asked, what was the lesson he had learnt from that experience as a Finance Minister he had quipped, "to stay the course".

And today when one sees him embarking on his foreign tour to meet his "friend" George Bush in Tokyo, with more confidence than he had ever displayed in these last over four years, one realises that he still knows and has in fact mastered the art of "staying the course". Who would have thought last month that this Prime Minister, much abused as the "weakest" Prime Minister and the "least political", would now be charged with "political skullduggery"! The last epithet anyone could have thought of bestowing on him.

But here is the man who by "staying the course" managed to out-maneuvre not only his bitterest critics in the left parties, but even his own benefactor, Sonia Gandhi. As she sits in her heavily cordoned fortress, 10, Janpath and watches the TV screens full of that "master-broker", Amar Singh waxing eloquent about what "national interest" is all about, she must be flinching. She, according to authoritative sources, is left wondering how and why all this happened. That she had to open her doors to the man who never missed an opportunity to take pot shots at her, ever since she had refused him entry to her house years back, is not a pleasant experience. And worse to be lectured by the same man all over the TV screens about how he is going to save her government.

All this was not in the realm of her possibility, until the "apolitical" Prime Minister made it happen. He had apparently been assiduously cultivating the Samajawadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's chief "broker" all these years. And when everything seemed lost and everyone was discussing the fall of the Government, he (PM) produced this card and left CPI (M)'s Prakash Karat frustrated and Sonia Gandhi depressed.

Sonia now finds herself having to endorse this master-plan and let go the left parties, with whom she had never had any problem dealing with all these four and odd years.

In fact the rapport between her and some of the left leaders was so immaculate that she had even congratulated them for their victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, much to their pleasant surprise, through SMS.

For Sonia the relationship with the left parties was part of a commitment she had made to the ailing Harkishan Singh Surjeet, then CPI(M) General Secretary, when the latter had formulated this incredibly difficult strategy of Congress-left alliance, in 2003 with the sole and larger aim of combating the communal forces. She must be sorely missing his sage advice when she is now forced to part company with his party, on an issue which she had hoped would go into the backburner for the present.

Obviously she had not bargained for the adamancy displayed by her Prime Minister to live his personal legacy behind. And when he came out with this formula to jettison the left parties, to pursue the nuclear deal, she just failed to display the courage as well as conviction to remind him about the promises. One was to Surjeet and the other one when she and Manmohan Singh himself had assured Karat and CPI General Secretary A.B.Bardhan that they would not insist on proceeding with the deal beyond the IAEA.

While still question marks remain, after all these master maneuverings to gain a majority without having to depend on left parties, about the possibility of the nuclear deal finally becoming a reality before the end of the Bush term, what even Sonia Gandhi and a number of her party men have no doubt about is the trap that they have fallen into. Having now to depend on unreliable partners like Samajawadi party and its equally unreliable leaders, for the Government's survival and the sacrifices they will have to make politically as well as morally and ethically.

Even if Manmohan Singh may just be able to pull off the deal, overcoming the subtle blackmails which the Americans have already started indulging in over India going ahead with the gas pipeline with Iran (Senator Gary Ackerman's warning that it may be too late now for the deal), would it benefit the Congress party? If it does, of course Manmohan Singh may just walk into the sunset reflecting in the glory he has covered himself with, by "staying the course" and clinching the nuclear deal.

But remember how the Narasimha Rao government, got all the accolades from a section of people for his economic reforms and the people of this country promptly dumped the Congress soon after, for the next eight years? The fear in the minds of the Congressmen is that a repeat of it is in the offing.

If it does, Manmohan's party may have to undertake a long walk before it returns to the citadels of power. And it may not even have for company during this walk the saviours Manmohan Singh has conjured up today, leave alone the bitterness which the party will have to face from the divorce proceedings with the left. And L.K.Advani may just be the happiest man today.

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