In banking parlance, if a rich and influential customer reaches the bank to deposit a huge sum to credit his account after business hours, the cashier on the advice of his superiors or of his own volition accept it with a note ‘too’ late for today’s account. The amount will be the first entry in the next day’s scroll. Now in computer , gone are the days of heavy ledgers used as cash scrolls. A bank official be him a manager, assistant manager, clerk, cashier or peon is bound to keep a welcome smile on his lips before a rich customer and keep him delightful always. “Customer Delight” is the apt word, so to say. (As one who opted out of a bank four years back this writer was part of and witness of invited smiles infront of influential customers).
Now come to the point or the heart of the matter.
‘This is no zero tolerance Mr. Prime Minister’ an occasional column under the caption ‘Reality check’ in the Op-ed Page of the National daily The Hindu by Siddharth Varadarajan who holds a responsible position in the reputed daily.
Kudos to Mr. Varadarajan for his ‘belated enlightenment’ over the mismatch between the words and deeds of our Prime Minister Dr.ManMohan Singh.
During a press conference ‘big’ please note ‘big’ our respected Prime Minister, I think it was on the eve of UPA 2 govt.’s completion of one year in office listing out the achievements of the govt. during the period Siddharth Varadarajan in his capacity as a media person asked the PM why no action was being contemplated against the army officials who gunned down five innocent civilians of Pathribal in one of the countless fake encounters in the simmering State of Jammu&Kashmir ten years ago. PM evaded him and turned to other media person. Mr.Varadarajan was discharging an obligation of a responsible journalist to inquire about a pertinent question about an incident, a ghastly one which shook the entire J&K in 2000. Mouthing zero tolerance towards anyone violating human rights round the clock virtually doing nothing positive in that direction our PM was hiding his ‘ostrich head’ in the sand.
He always swears by his integrity and there are many takers for his claim, agree, why he evades from the steps expected from such a person?
In 2004 UPA 1 came to power amidst much fanfare and Dr.Singh occupied the throne of Prime Minister obviously with the blessings of Sonia Gandhi, the power behind the throne since then.
On assuming office, he spoke before the nation various steps to lift the nation out of the abyss of debt, corruption, worsening law and order situation, terror-threats hanging like the proverbial sword of Democles and make it a vibrant economy in his tenure as Prime Minister.
One of the first measures about which he had spoken about was his vow to root out the rampant corruption plaguing our nation. He also declared that there wouldn’t be any corrupt or scam-tainted ministers in his cabinet. And if and when a scam-tainted minister he found such a person in his ministry he vowed to throw him out.
Laughable indeed. By keeping alleged scam tainted ministers like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Shibu Soren, to name a few, he was speaking from the highest podium. Little did he take any measures to keep them out from his ministry. Rather he kept mum. In spite of the hullabaloo raised by the opposition parties and prolonged boycott of the parliamentary proceedings by them he didn’t budge rather feared to budge as his top-most priority was the stability of his government. Removing the scam-tainted ministers amounted to scuttling the existence of his govt. for which he was not prepared to. The certainty of toppling the govt. by certain parties was looming large hence he meekly surrendered to their diktats. The funniest part of the story was in the meanwhile he kept on harping about rooting out corruption from our land and as always some scapegoats dealt with. An eye wash, so to speak. During his press conference on completion of one year by UPA 2 govt. he didn’t mince no words in keeping the corrupt elements out of his cabinet. The continuation of allegedly scam-tainted A.Raja, Communications Minister notwithstanding over the issue of 2G spectrum auction. And our PM is not at all going to take any action against him even if it is proved beyond any doubt about Raja’s involvement fearing the erosion of the support base of his govt. by a powerful constituent from Tamil Nadu.
Other important measure he often mentions about ‘social inclusiveness’. Ever since he assumed power in 2004 the term ‘social inclusiveness’ he often mentioned till now barring some not so essential measures it remains where it was. His and his team’s so called economic reforms catered to the needs of corporate India and in turn they go on flourishing widening the chasm between the haves and have-nots day by day. Class-divisions often lead to tensions resultantly the entire social fabric is bound to be affected. As Pushpa M Bharagava wrote in The Hindu two days ago 80% percent of Indians live below poverty line, among them the average savings of each person is Rs 20 a day while a minority enjoy life to its full potential. Signs of unrest and violence we witness on a daily basis no amount of suppression won’t be sufficient to contain it. The Law of Eventual Destruction of Oppressors (LEDO) is applicable to all nations even US not an exception according to him. He has no hesitation to point out that America is a hated nation in front of the world unlike in the past. Pushpa M Bhargava also mentions about one of his meetings with Noam Chomsky and in the course of the talks Chomsky had told him about his anticipation of 9/11 type attack in USA. Chomsky’s anticipation proved right in his own life-time.
While writing this piece our PM was on a two day tour of Jammu&Kashmir and on the day one he was reported to have declared his govt.’s determination to deal with human rights violations sternly. What more needed?
Our PM’s US-centric attitude is embarrassing as well as appalling. Close on the heels of his assumption of office as FM (Finance Minister) under the Premiership of P.V.Narasimha Rao following the path of America he introduced neo-liberal economic reforms in our country. Following in his footsteps the next govt. which was BJP-led one under the Prime Ministership of A.B.Vajpayee in 1998, neo-liberal reforms gained momentum and in 2004 when the General elections were announced and held the NDA alliance under him was pretty sure about a victorious come back. The much publicized ‘INDIA SHINING’ slogan through print and visual media and the nationwide campaign with a note of over-confidence resulted in bitter disaster upsetting all calculations. Actually India was suffering not shining and the masses were eagerly waiting for an opportunity to dislodge the NDA govt at the earliest. NDA couldn’t read the pulse of the electorate, their sufferings and hardships while those at the top, a miniscule of them amassed huge wealth, thanks to their adoption of the neo-liberal reforms introduced by Mr.Rao and Dr.ManMohan Singh. 2004 General elections witnessed a hung parliament Congress being the first largest party with the support of several regional entities and with the Left Front extending support from outside, a govt. was cobbled together with a wafer-thin majority in parliament. Leftists with their 61 seats were a formidable force. Dr.Singh couldn’t proceed along the expected lines his hands somewhat tied up, some welfare measures had to be implemented for those at lowest rungs otherwise his line would have been different.
His pro-American approach, his obsession with US continued notwithstanding the opposition of the Leftists and George Bush was his idol then and that relationship resulted in Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal. The Leftists withdrew support to his govt. reducing it to be a minority govt. A horse-trading of sorts resulted, millions flowed and the fence-sitters came to his help- the ones without any principles or ideology and he got the deal approved by the Parliament. I recall his assurance while an uproar against the ‘agreement’ note here ‘agreement’ erupted before the parliament approved it with the support of fence-sitters Dr.Singh had given an assurance to parliament members that before signing the deal in its entirety would be discussed in the parliament but he back-tracked from his promise never discussed it with the MPs and got it approved later.
During the Indo-US strategic dialogue at Washington, US had reportedly pressed for the approval of Indo-US Nuclear liability damage bill which is now before the parliamentary standing committee. In the event of a nuclear-disaster the US firms which are about to install nuclear reactors in India could escape responsibility for the disaster by paying a nominal sum as compensation. Please note that the verdict on worst ever industrial disaster caused by an American firm in the world- the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 which killed and maimed several thousands of innocents was a disgrace to the entire world. The accused No.1 Warren Anderson, an American is already free. US has made it clear in no uncertain terms that Mr.Anderson will not be extradited. Eight others escaped with 2 year imprisonment or by remitting a nominal fine. All of them were freed on bail with a surety of Rs.25000 each with in hours of the pronouncement of the verdict.
It is quite certain that Civil Nuclear damage liability bill is going to be passed in our parliament in a few days time. It is part of an obligation of a US-centric Prime Minister and he will ensure that his beloved friendly country has to be kept in good humour. We have got a PM worth emulating.
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