Friday, June 12, 2009

When The Part Rules The Whole

Have you ever heard that a part ruled the whole lot? This is happening in India. While the Congress led government is in power, but it seems to be “helpless” against the arm twisting techniques of its own allies. What is surprising is that Congress is limping when it can walk straight and without a dependency support. This weakness of Indian Congress is becoming a “major cause” for the “possible failure” of its 100 days Workplan. Now the only question that remains to be answered is would it also push Congress for another five year failures for India that it cannot afford? Till now there is nothing that shows that Congress is capable of making its promises a reality within the next 100 days. Does it also mean that the speech by the President of India would remain a speech alone?

When the United Progressive Alliance won almost an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha elections, many Indians expected firm, purposive governance in place of the earlier dithering when the Congress was constantly blackmailed by the Left, yet had to pretend to like it. But in less than a month, we now know that the new Congress-led government may just display as much spine as a jellyfish. The latest example of this is its decision not to sell any minority stakes in public sector undertakings (PSUs) located in Tamil Nadu.

This is not the first surrender. When the Cabinet was being formed, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wanted A Raja out of the telecom ministry, but later gave in to DMK pressure on this. Yet we have the tail wagging the dog. Accommodation does not mean surrender. Congress is in a strong political position, and has no need to funk firm action. Alas, despite paying lip-service to the great ideal of socialism, it looks more yellow than pink.

SOURCE: ECONOMIC TIMES