End the needling

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has managed to,in his own inimitable way,once again make the UPA look like a house divided. He has now gone to China and unburdened himself of his concerns that Indias home ministry is alarmist and paranoid. The point is not merely that a relatively junior member of the cabinet should not be talking out of turn about other ministries on a foreign trip. The question is larger than Jairam Ramesh. It is why UPA-II manages to give the impression of a leaky,off-kilter boat,divided,never staying on message,with no centre of gravity.

Rameshs indiscretions follow on from Digvijay Singhs provocative assault on Home Minister P. Chidambaram last month; which followed Shashi Tharoors multiple clangers and Congressman-not-writer Mani Shankar Aiyar refusing to miss an opportunity to needle the government and its policies. In the UPA-I we knew what the problem was: the Left,an ally giving the government outside support. But,in UPA-II,the fissures are within the Congress,raising questions about where the alliances centre of gravity is. What undermines party-government discipline is the sense that too many party leaders have one eye firmly set on the 2014 elections,and are positioning themselves neatly for any rearrangements within the party and the government that might happen around that time. In the process,they are severely damaging this governments image,and distorting its message. That is not something that a Congress dependent for its governments survival on complex floor management,and therefore on a perception of authority and composure,can afford.

Is it the case that this is all orchestrated? That the Congress party wishes to put daylight between it and the government of which it is the major constituent? We do not subscribe to this theory. But it has,almost casually,become prominent,and a response is called for. The PM and the Congress president need to bring in discipline. The spectacle of individual Congressmen and women advancing their personal agendas by inflating notions of party-government dissonance cannot be in eithers interest.