My daughter has introduced me to a new word: fremdschamen. Its origin is German or Dutch; there are two dots (an umlaut) above the a. It means being embarrassed and ashamed on account of the behaviour of others,especially that of friends. I cannot say that I am friendly with the present government of India,but on occasion I have had cordial feelings towards them. Over the past several months,they have been repeatedly embarrassing me. I experience fremdschamen!
Everyone in the telecom industry says that the 2G licence and spectrum allocations were a scandal,and this fact was universally known. But not to our government. And they expect us to believe that! Things got worse as events unfolded. The government fought the 2G revelations to the bitter end,postponing resignations and investigative action until they were forced into it reluctantly oh so reluctantly,kicking and screaming. Instead of thanking the Comptroller and Auditor General for defending the fisc (in which activity he is supposed to be an ally and supporter of our government,which too is supposed to defend the fisc),they have gone out of their way to attack the CAG,claiming with alarming disingenuousness that the loss to the state was zero,drawing attention to the leaks of reports rather than responding to the substance of the reports and so on. Even the prime minister took umbrage to the fact that,unlike his predecessors,the current CAG holds press conferences. But that is because in the past,governments reacted constructively to the CAGs reports.
I have written earlier as to how a distinguished finance minister of Punjab,Dr Gopichand Bhargava,thanked the CAGs department for being a partner of the government in protecting the states finances. Dr Singh: your government would do well to imitate Dr Bhargava. The present government is also spreading the story of so-called judicial overreach without having the grace to concede that but for such overreach,the 2G and the cash-for-votes scandals were moving towards quiet burial through delay. This shameless focus on attacking constitutional institutions on matters of procedure and ignoring the shocking content of the issues erodes the governments credibility again and again. The CAG would much prefer a co-operative government which shares its files with him promptly,and the Supreme Court would much prefer it if the CBI investigated fairly and speedily on its own without judges having to prod that worthy institution! It is out of a feeling of extreme fremdschamen that the CAG goes to the press,or that the Supreme Court monitors CBI investigations in detail.
On the CVC matter my fremdschamen is intense. Here was a committee of three including the prime minister,the finance minister and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha; the committee was given three names; there could have been unanimity on two of the three names. The two ministers insist on going with the third name by majority vote. They do not look at enough documents. For a government given to endless dilatoriness on vital issues that affect the country,suddenly the CVC decision has got to be made hastily,in defiance of a written dissent from the opposition leader. And when the matter goes to court,the government ties itself up in comical knots. No graceful exit is contemplated. The Supreme Court is literally without any choice but to nullify the CVC appointment a case not of judicial overreach but of judicial anguish! Citizens are left with that taut feeling of fremdschamen as we contemplate our governments cussedness and ineptitude.
And talking of ineptitude,what does one make of laffaire Hazare? The government chose not to include opposition parliamentarians in the joint committee along with the ministers and Annas nominees. Now the government is stuck with opprobrium rather than credit in how it handled this melodramatic committee. Why bother to go through the motions of a joint committee,if the government is going to submit only its version which is so much at variance with the inputs not only from Annas folks,but from the members of the governments own darling NAC?
The governments bill is a travesty,an insult to our intelligence. The Lokpal is to investigate public officials,not NGOs. If you want to regulate NGOs and bring transparency to their operations,by all means do so with a separate law and an independent regulator like Sebi. Why try to slip these provisions into the Lokpal bill by sleight of hand? The Lokpal is supposed to protect whistleblowers; the government bill seems to be designed to harass whistleblowers. Who is kidding whom?
Many have considerable reservations about Hazares demands,and his operating style. But the government wanted to make sure that all people who might have been in the anti-Hazare camp should in fact become his ardent supporters! The government therefore decided to violate his civil liberties. He was asked to comply with nonsensical conditions for his rally which the Congress party would never have agreed to for itself. When he justifiably refused,he was arrested. I started thinking about the Rowlatt Act,and others started thinking about the events of 1975. To its credit (and this is the first time during this long sequence of events,I did not feel any fremdschamen),the government avoided the ruthless responses of Indira Gandhi and the cruel tactics of General Dyer. The government backtracked and let me assure you,Dr Singh,this is not a sign of weakness as some around you may be telling you. This is a sign of statesmanship and good sense.
In the perilous days ahead,Dr Singh,I hope that you are guided by a spirit which does not assume that your opponents in constitutional institutions,politics or civil society lack patriotism. Your government needs to work with all these groups dealing with the content of issues and not hide behind procedural technicalities.
The writer is an entrepreneur
