Great and the good

What do our ex-prime ministers do? Or, to be more blunt, what do the more able politicians among our ex-PMs do? The shorter list would have included Narasimha Rao if he were alive. It includes Atal Bihari Vajpayee. V.P. Singh is a possible entrant. And it will definitely include Manmohan Singh as and when his prime ministership confronts election results or Congress succession plans. When Prime Minister Singh greeted ex-PM Vajpayee on the latter8217;s birthday, the BJP elder had finished a hectic round of political activity, asking questions of the government and trying to reinvigorate BJP cadres. Nothing odd about that. Except that it points to an unflattering trait in India8217;s politics: the mutually reinforcing tendencies of able politicians, who have already had the top job, not letting go of party politics and the establishment not being able to rise above partisan interests to accommodate such talent.

In the US and some continental European countries, ex-heads of government take on big agendas and often serve as their country8217;s unofficial but influential spokespersons. Britain has had a recent record of ex-PMs not taking on a bigger public role but Tony Blair8217;s musings on what he wants to do post-retirement may change that. In India though no one seems to mind at all that the astuteness of Narasimha Rao was unused, that Vajpayee8217;s stature and his ability to get different kinds of people together will be used for nothing more than BJP party politics, that, as and when he hangs up his prime ministerial boots, Manmohan Singh shouldn8217;t expect anything too different.

As India becomes a country that matters more and more, both to itself and to the world, the need for an establishment that gets together the great and the good, irrespective of their political affiliations, becomes more urgent. One way to start doing this would be to change the incentive structure for talented ex-PMs so that they can ignore the compulsions of trying to remain politically 8216;relevant8217;. This sounds easy but will involve fundamental alterations in the way the Indian system works. In particular, senior leaders of major parties need to consciously promote the notion of an enlightened club, something far more substantive and grand than defined by ex-bureaucrats landing cushy sinecures. If this sounds elitist, it is the kind of elitism that can serve the country.