Merry Mister Muddle

Pity poor Madanlal Khurana, minister of parliamentary affairs and chief whip of the BJP parliamentary party. Every time he opens his mouth, which is often, he embarrasses not just his party but himself. Every second statement of his is a retraction or a clarification of an earlier stance. His latest faux pas was a serious one, in that it involved the President, whom he had recklessly brought into a controversy over the non-introduction of the Patents Bill in the Lok Sabha even after it had been cleared in the Upper House. Khurana had claimed that the President had neglected to return the Bill in time, a charge the President8217;s office took immediate exception to. It then transpired that the minister did not even know that the patents legislation, not being a money Bill, did not require to be sent to the President in the first place. Khurana attributed this 8220;needless controversy8221; to a 8220;technical misunderstanding8221; of the briefing he received from officials. And then, in the same breath, proceeded to attackthe Congress for going back on its promised support for the Bill. But he must know that a Central minister handling as sensitive a portfolio as he does, cannot afford misunderstandings, technical or otherwise.

What8217;s more, he seems more prone to creating such controversies than most of his other colleagues with the possible exception of Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, who also has a well-deserved reputation for retractions and roll-backs. Khurana had, it may be remembered, ushered in the winter session of Parliament by that familiar scramble to change his stance on the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill. He first said that getting it passed was not a priority issue for the government and shortly thereafter swore it was. But a great deal of damage had been done in the few hours that lapsed between his first and subsequent statements 8212; stock markets headed south and foreign investors expressed dismay. It was the same old story with the Patents Bill too. Khurana had at first claimed that it was to be sentto a select committee and then rushed to deny this.

But it is a trifle unfair to heap all the blame for Khurana8217;s weather-vane ways on the man himself. He is only reflecting the very real schisms and contradictions within the ruling coalition, where one hand seems to be itching to rap the other hard on the knuckles and the other wants to return the compliment. What the nation is witnessing through the fumbles and mumbles of a Madanlal Khurana is nothing short of an ideological battle, with the swadeshi lobby and the pro-liberalisation lobbies within the BJP arraigned against each other. But Khurana, if he was more familiar with constitutional law and parliamentary etiquette, could certainly have managed these contradictions more wisely than he has, specially since Prime Minister Vajpayee has suddenly demonstrated a desire to be his own man and run his government as he sees fit rather than mouth Nagpur8217;s nostrums.