Opinion The jugaad government
As the government of Dr Manmohan Singh approaches the third year of its second term in office,there is one thing that can be said of it with certainty. Its distinctive attribute is torpor. Its response to major calamities and national crises has been unhurried at its speediest. So,it was when the Commonwealth Games were on […]
As the government of Dr Manmohan Singh approaches the third year of its second term in office,there is one thing that can be said of it with certainty. Its distinctive attribute is torpor. Its response to major calamities and national crises has been unhurried at its speediest.
So,it was when the Commonwealth Games were on the verge of ignominious collapse that the Prime Minister showed interest in what was going wrong. It was when Naxalites started killing our policemen in huge numbers that Delhi paid attention. And,it was only when the Kashmir Valley had been under curfew for more than two months,that the Prime Minister realised that it was no longer a local problem and he needed to intervene. On the Ayodhya judgment,we are still not sure if the Congress president and the Prime Minister take the same view. The point I am making is that it should not surprise us one bit that the Games were saved by last minute jugaad because last minute improvisation appears to be the leitmotif of the Sonia-Manmohan government.
What is worrying is that this spirit of jugaad seems to have crept into issues of national security. Last week,two or three things happened that indicate this. On the eve of the 78th anniversary of the Indian Air Force,the Chief of Air Staff announced that half the equipment the IAF used was obsolete. At the Air Force day parade,Air Chief Marshal P V Naik went a step further and warned his troops that the current security scenario is like a volcano and may test your skills any time without warning. Why has the Defence Minister never mentioned this and can he explain why our brave fighter pilots are risking their lives with obsolete equipment? If there is a volcanic situation in our neighbourhood,should we not be addressing it more seriously?
Then came the admission by Pakistans former military ruler,General Pervez Musharraf,that his government had trained jihadi terrorist groups to use against India in Kashmir. We have always known this but never before has there been such an open admission at such a high level. Without mincing words,Musharraf told Der Spiegel,They (the jihadi groups) were indeed formed. The government turned a blind eye because they wanted India to discuss Kashmir. Examine this in the light of an Interpol red corner alert last week against two serving Pakistani officers for their involvement in 26/11 and Indias situation looks grim.
Next month will be the third anniversary of 26/11 and in these three years the Government of India has failed to force Pakistan to do anything about the men responsible for that horrible crime. Where,for instance,are the two serving officers that Interpol is looking for? Thanks to David Headley we know that their names are Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali and that among their accomplices were an ex-soldier called Major Abdur Rehman Hashim and Ilyas Kashmiri,a fanatical jihadi. Thanks to Headley,we also know that the ISI was involved in planning the 26/11 attack from start to finish.
If Pakistani military intelligence planned the attack,it means that we should treat 26/11 as an act of war. But,have you noticed any urgency in the Government of Indias response? Any signs that we have strengthened our defences? The Defence Minister said in his usual genteel tones last week that the international community should put pressure on Pakistan to stop its sponsorship of Islamist terror,but is there no pressure India can exert? In Pakistans misfortunes there is some hope that they will be too busy with flood relief for the next few months to escalate their cowardly war,but our problems do not end with Pakistan.
China is busy building roads along our borders and we can only hope that these roads are not used against us one day because no matter how hard we try,we cannot build roads as fast as China can. On the road building front,the governments inertia has reached almost criminal levels. Kamal Nath has been traveling around the world trying to inspire investors to come to India but from the Prime Ministers side we have seen not the smallest hint of urgency.
The only time that Dr Manmohan Singhs government shakes off its inertia is when Sonia Gandhi and her kitchen cabinet,the National Advisory Council,make some new demand. Unfortunately,Madame and her jholawallahs concentrate their efforts on charity. Their schemes will never end poverty in India but they will help our poorest citizens get a hundred days of work a year and perhaps one square meal a day. Since Sonia and her kitchen cabinet at least get things done,could they please take charge of national security as well? It could be our only chance of preventing another 26/11.
Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleen_singh
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