The 60 per cent PM

Manmohan Singh refused to toe the party line in Goa and Jharkhand. He refused to play along with his railway minister as that worthy demanded president’s rule in Gujarat, and then sought massive changes in the Election Commission. He refused to wind back the economic reforms that were the handiwork of the Vajpayee government. He has refused to water down the friendship with the United States that was initiated by his immediate predecessor. Yes, Manmohan Singh has several acts of omission at his doorstep.

But these are faults only in the eyes of his own allies. I think the “aam aadmi” might have another set of complaints. Our daily life has become just a little worse in the last twelve months — whether it is in the form of worse roads, worse water and electricity supply, or even worse tourist facilities. Read the newspapers of the last four months or so, when the deterioration became too hard to ignore, and you will see how civic services are beginning to crash in Bangalore and Mumbai. Another four years of this, and we can bid farewell to the twenty-first century as we slide inexorably into a grimy past.

The prime minister has awarded himself 60 per cent on his performance. Well, it helps to defy university rules and let the examinee be his own examiner, power to grant grace marks and all! The rating sounds weird, not least because a previous internal assessment suggested that barely 30 per cent of the promises made a year ago had been kept. The prime minister’s problem is that a hefty chunk of his cabinet seems blissfully unconcerned about governance. That is not to say that there are no efficient ministers. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, to name but one, may be one of the most dynamic men to hold that office in several years. But how many lives are touched by decisions taken in the civil aviation ministry?

The “Bijli, Sadak, Pani” trinity, however, affects us all. The prime minister simply hasn’t got his ministers moving when it comes to infrastructure. He has also failed to move his allies — Congressmen not least — away from confrontationist politics. Was it really necessary to allow the opposition’s boycott of Parliament to drag on, or to try and initiate an inquiry against Arun Shourie? The prime minister was late to react even in Jharkhand, doing little until both the president and the Supreme Court intervened. And pressure from the Left Front seems certain to block reforms in everything from pensions to banking to labour regulation.

When Manmohan Singh’s name popped up in the prime ministerial stakes, it was generally conceded that he would be a decent administrator even if he lacked political clout. How many people would agree with that assessment twelve months on? The prime minister’s reputation for personal probity stands intact and he runs what is the most non-controversial prime minister’s office in decades. But there is a world of difference between honesty and efficiency, and as head of the government Manmohan Singh carries the can for the inefficiencies of his ministers. Can you answer pleas for reform of the creaking governmental structure with a simple “I am not a crook”?

In the years — perhaps months — to come, Manmohan Singh will face an increasingly frustrated India. The claims of personal morality will be drowned out by the hissing of air rushing through empty taps. That reputation for probity will crack in any case if he does not take active steps to distance himself from his more questionable colleagues. How long can one endure Laloo Prasad Yadav’s antics without asking why he is being kept on as one of Manmohan Singh’s senior ministers?

There is, of course, another side to this. Elements within the Congress itself are also beginning to chafe about the prime minister’s devotion to his conscience. They have already begun to whisper that Manmohan Singh is a “hindrance”. What might happen should he also be damned as “ineffective”? If public anger grows beyond a point, several of his colleagues would gladly throw him to the wolves as a sop to popular sentiment.

I am fairly certain that the opposition would flop if it tried to throw mud on Manmohan Singh. But a man is proverbially known by the company he keeps; if your company happens to include the likes of Laloo Prasad Yadav, Syed Sibtey Razi and S.C. Jamir, people will obviously ask questions about you.

The dilemma is that the company that the prime minister keeps is the same company that is keeping him in power. He has survived opposition onslaughts, can he last the miners and sappers in his own coalition?