Personally, I've always admired Dr. Manmohan Singh. He's a fantastic personality; humble, dedicated and astute. An economic whiz, Dr. Singh completed his fourth year as head of this UPA coalition recently. But he has had his share of critics, especially among the opposition who have always questioned the independence in his decision making. And they continue to do so.
Some time ago, I would scoff at these critics. But off late there is some case to be made to the contrary.
The first is this continuing see-saw on the Indo-US nuclear deal. Its reached a state where every other day we hear foreign minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee saying the deal is on, following which minor turbulence begins to arise in the coalition's aircraft, with leaders (especially from the Left) squirming in their seats, only to then have the pilot (Dr. Singh) or his co-pilot(Mr Mukherjee) assure the country that this aircraft will stay in the air till 2009. But why must this government parry so, always afraid of a crash landing? Will 60 odd MPs hold the country to ransom? Why cant the government just take the Left head on, and confront it for once about its flawed policies(in Bengal particularly) and double standards at the state and central level? The government seems to be bullied too easily, and is just plain afraid to challenge the Left and call its bluff. Everybody knows Election 09 is going to throw up a hung parliament. And the 'secular' Left can't be seen joining hands with the 'communal' forces. Which leaves them with only one mainstream party to tie up with: the Congress! But the Congress just doesn't want to take any risks of political fallouts in an election year. National interest be damned!
Another illustration of this political cowardice is seen is the handling of the Olympic Torch Run and Tibet protests. Yes, China drubbed us in the '62 war. But does a war loss mean eternal subservience? One certainly hopes not! But the government's splendid efforts to stub all protests and ensure the 'sanctity of the torch' reek of subservience, which isn't expected from a nation that wants to be a global superpower. Moreover, we, being the world's largest democracy, ought to have immediately lodged strong protest over China's brutal suppression of human rights in Tibet. But we were too busy doing it ourselves right here in our own land, and that too on their orders! And lets not forget the 2 am summoning of our Chinese envoy, Nirupama Rao, after Tibetian protesters stormed the Chinese embassy in Delhi. Yet our government just wagged its tail in delight after China 'graciously' thanked India for its co-operation. Reduced to a faithful pet, weren't we?
Now most recently, Pakistan has upped the infiltration and cross-border firing in Kashmir. But the government treads cautiously, not surprisingly. There are only niceties all around with 'Peace Process' and 'Composite Dialogue' being the buzzwords, even as our jawans vociferously fight off infiltrators each day.
Its not that I'm suggesting we go the American way and just invade people we don't like. But surely, given our new found economic vibrancy, and global recognition, we can at least be seen to be stern in our replies (all verbal mind you), instead of this newfangled policy of 'cowardice'. It was always supposed to be 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' right? Then how come we're the ones doing all the scratching...
