Manmohans & Advanis are personally honest, but politically---? | N.R.Mohanty

Published on 27-07-2008 In General

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Manmohans & Advanis are personally honest, but politically---?

"Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be not only the art of the possible, especially if this means the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deals, and pragmatic maneuvering, but that it can even be the art of the impossible, namely, the art of improving ourselves and the world", said Vaclav Havel, Czech dramatist and statesman.

The Congress party and its leaders showed to the world, by winning the trust vote in the Lok Sabha, how good they are in the art of the possible. After all, there were many a speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deal and pragmatic maneuvering by both sides of the political divide in the run up to the trust vote. That the ruling coalition managed to beat the opposition only brought home the point that Manmohan Singh, Amar Singh, Mulayam Singh & Co are better political artistes than L K Advani, Prakash Karat, Mayawati and their cohorts.

The losers shed crocodile tears that they lost the battle because of the money power of the ruling establishment. But then that is a lame excuse. Mayawati can any day match Mulayam Singh & Amar Singh in marshalling resources for the horse-trading. All of them have made huge money while they were in power. L K Advani's cabal -- even after the untimely death of the guru of them, Pramod Mahajan -- is capable of raising at least as much money, if not more, from the business and corporate houses worldwide as Manmohan Singh's backroom boys.

So it was a battle of equals, equal money power and equal disdain for political morality. Each side was prepared to stoop to any level to achieve its political objective. The side that won the battle did so because the victorious side played the game more deftly on the given day.

As the trust motion showed to the world, politics as the art of the possible is an integral part of the political process in our country. All our political parties and their leaders are past masters in this art. But how good are they in what Havel called 'the art of the impossible', 'the art of improving ourselves and the world'?

How many of our politicians are engaged in this not-so-often-trodden Havelian politics?

Most of our political luminaries must not be familiar with the name of Vaclav Havel; nor are they intellectually equipped or morally inclined to be able to engage in the political art of the impossible.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, in his reply to the trust motion debate outlined his commitment to the Havelian politics: "All I can say is that in all these years that I Have been in office, whether as Finance Minister or Prime Minister, I have felt it as a sacred obligation to use the levers of power as a societal trust to be used for transforming our economy and polity, so that we can get rid of poverty, ignorance and disease which still afflict millions of our people. This is a long and arduous journey. But every step taken in this direction can make a difference. And that is we have sought to do in the last four years….

Every day that I have been the Prime Minister of India I have tried to remember that the first ten years of my life were spent in a village with no drinking water supply, no electricity, no hospital, no roads and nothing that we associate today with modern living. I had to walk miles to school, I had to study in the dim light of a kerosene oil lamp. The nation gave me the opportunity to ensure that such would not be the life of our children in the foreseeable future….

We are here today, gone tomorrow. But in the brief time that the people of India entrust us with this responsibility, it is our duty to be honest and sincere in the discharge of these responsibilities…"

Very sound Havelian exposition indeed! But how true Manmohan Singh is to his words? There is no denying his personal honesty. But if personal honesty is the barometer for one's place in history, then L K Advani, whom the Prime Minister excoriated in his speech, would claim a position as high as him in the political pantheon of free India.

When you are in such a high position, personal honesty is the necessary condition for exemplary leadership, but not the sufficient condition. The Prime Minister rightly attacked Advani, for whipping up a campaign for the 'destruction of the Babri Masjid with all the terrible consequences that followed'? He did not say it in so many words, but the implication was that a personally honest Advani can be politically deviant to realize his dreams.

For strategic reasons, Manmohan Singh did not name Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but the charges that he leveled against Advani as Home Minister were all the more applicable to the then Prime Minister. Advani and the rest of the party showcase Vajpayee as a man of unimpeachable integrity. But the 'Man of History' showed his feet of clay when he turned a deaf ear to the cries of thousands of innocent people who were killed in Gujarat in 2002. All that he could do was to tell his party colleague, Narendra Modi, who had masterminded the riot, to observe 'raj dharma'. It only showed how a personally honest politician can be so devious politically to protect his throne.

But then the BJP leaders are not the only guilty party. Manmohan Singh often idolizes his political mentor – P V Narasimha Rao – the late Prime Minister. But what has been his track record?

The Prime Minister puts this question before all of us: "Can our nation approve the conduct of a Home Minister who was sleeping while Gujarat was burning leading to the loss of thousands of innocent lives?"

The reference was to L K Advani. And all conscientious citizens of the country will join Manmohan Singh to give an emphatic answer, 'No'.

But, in the same vein, the Prime Minister must ask another the question: "Can our nation approve the conduct of a Home Minister who was sleeping while the whole country was burning leading to the loss of lives of thousands of innocent Sikhs?"

Here the reference is to P V Narasimha Rao. Here, again, the conscientious citizens of the country will hold Narasimha Rao guilty of turning a Nelson's eye to a planned genocide. But will Manmohan Singh agree with them?

Will Manmohan Singh condemn the shenanigans of his mentor who used money bags (which has been proved) to protect the government he headed and in which Singh was the finance minister?

He will not.

That says it all. Manmohan Singhs, L K Advanis and A B Vajpayees are all tall, personally honest leaders. But, sadly they are all birds of the same feather when it comes to political honesty.

They all live in glass houses. Throwing stones at each other may serve their personal purpose, but not the collective purpose that Vaclav Havel wanted them to practise.

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