Opinion RIP UPA
Indias infant mortality statistics are bad. Far too many children die before they are five.
Indias infant mortality statistics are bad. Far too many children die before they are five. It is rare,however for a government,which was elected with much fanfare and the prospect of following up on a record of brilliant economic success to die. The UPA-II government was demolished on the issue of FDI in retail one day after the nineteenth anniversary of the Babri Masjid.
We should demand an autopsy into the childs death. It was expected to survive the full five years and then grow for five more at least. Alas,that is not to be. The child had been lackadaisical right from the start,and,for the past one year,has been almost comatose. Beset by an inflation fever which would not subside and with the virus of corruption as well as the delirium of anti-corruption protests around its sickbed,the child UPA-II seems to have lost all will to live. It made one last gasp of an effort to get better by taking the FDI pill but it had to spit it out. Perhaps it should have held on and swallowed the medicine. But then ,as it often happens with sick children,the will to survive was ebbing.
Along with the child UPA-II,dying in its third year,we also heard that its 20-year-old guardian,the Economic Reform Programme (ERP),has also gone into a coma. It had been feeling neglected for some time,indeed ever since UPA-II was born. It also suffered from much abuse and was denied any credit for the good work it had done. It is not at all certain when and how the ERP will be revived. Chances are that it will join the young UPA-II and quietly bid a goodbye to life.
How did it happen? How did the UPA government,or rather the Congress,lose the plot so completely? Who made the decision to delay the announcement of the FDI liberalisation till the opening of the winter session,thus waving a red rag before the Lok Sabha? All the months since the end of the monsoon session,nothing was done,and then it had to announce the one decision which is both vital and contentious. If this was the plan,then why did the Congress continue to be hostile to BJP right up to the opening of the winter session since the BJP is the only other party which has good record in reform. Of course,some members of the Congress are in a perpetual war mode with the BJP (names too obvious to mention) but at least the Congress Cabinet ministers should have invested some time in earning goodwill. Now instead,the BJP has been handed its biggest propaganda victory in eight years. The BJP would have proved a reliable partner in furthering reform. The TMC,on the other hand has got West Bengal and so it can spit at the Congress.
It is well known that the PM has only one friend in the Congress,and Sonia Gandhi has not been her usual forceful self. (The Congress has also plans for banning social networking media from making any criticism of their leaders. When governments start censoring the media,you know they are losing their popularity. Recall the halcyon days of 1975 when the nation,ie the Congress and Mrs Indira Gandhi,had to be saved from democracy and the free press.) The rest of the Congress party is happy to see the PM humiliated. His useful life as PM is being cut short,perhaps to hurry up the succession. It is a pity that the only PM since Nehru who has commanded genuine respect abroad,is being trashed by his own party.
Professor Ian Little who was the PMs teacher at Oxford,once advanced the idea that reform cycles in Indian politics got exhausted within five years. The radicalism of the Mahalanobis Plan did not survive the 1950s. Indira Gandhi ran out of steam before she had five years in power and resorted to repression. Rajiv Gandhi got derailed thanks to Bofors,and the NDA thanks to Tehelka. This time the Indian Miracle has been killed. When and if India regains its growth momentum is anyones guess. In the meantime,welcome back,the Hindu rate of growth.
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