UPA’s Report Card

The ruling coalition—UPA-II—has completed one year in office. If one takes UPA-I and UPA-II together, this month the United Progressive Alliance, led by Sonia Gandhi with Dr Manmohan Singh as the head of government, completes six years.

True, in these six years the government at the Centre has ensured communal harmony with the Hindutva forces unable to mount, at least for the present, renewed assault on our secular values and pluralist ethos even if linguistic parochialism of the worst kind has raised its ugly head on the streets of Mumbai courtesy the Shiv Sena and its sister organisation, the MNS. But caste prejudices continue to dominate the polity and society as is seen from the daily news across the country. And the Manmohan Singh administration is pandering to such prejudices for the sake of guaranteeing political stability.

The spectre of rising prices continue to haunt the ruling coalition. In fact the aam aadmi is getting a raw deal everywhere regardless of the protestations of those in power. The discontent among the public at large, whether in J&K or the North-East, shows no signs of lessening. Rather, it is getting aggravated in Manipur which is threatened with ethnic clashes. The discussions with the Nagas have reached a blind alley. As for agrarian distress, it is on the rise once again while the government’s close collaboration with the corporate world is leading to increasing alienation of those in the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder.

But by far the most serious challenge is posed by the Maoist insurgency, which has been characterised by the PM as the “biggest threat to internal security†the country has experienced in years. Instead of meeting this challenge head-on through negotiations with the Maoist guerillas thereby displaying the innate strength of Indian democracy, the government of the day, notably the Union Home Minister, decided to embark on paramilitary operations to “flush out the Naxalites†—the result: after being rebuffed in the battlefield, the authorities are currently thinking of changing the strategy, but as of now, despite welcome signs of acknowledging the root cause of the crisis on this front, there is no reversal of the Chidambaram line of action. If the latest Maoist attack in Dantewada has led to several civilian casualties, expansion of the Home Minister’s mandate could end up in more such tragic “collateral damge†to the detriment of public interest. Hence there is in the long run no option but to explore the political one through dialogue since what we face today is essentially a political problem.

In this scenario when unrest among the people is fast growing with the UPA leadership keen to placate Big Business and MNCs while grudgingly kowtowing to US directives, the only silver-lining is the decision of the PM in particular to resume talks with Pakistan without in any way decreasing the pressure on Islamabad to act against anti-Indian terror outfits operating from Pakistani soil. In this context the latest Indo-Pak Business Meet, under the aegis of Aman Ki Asha, in New Delhi was an outstanding event giving a new impetus to people-to-people contacts suspended in the aftermath of Mumbai terror attacks on 26/11 one-and-a-half year ago.

The UPA’s report card in office does not inspire confidence. However, the silver-lining, mentioned in the foregoing, can in no way be underestimated given the complexities of our problems at home and abroad.

May 20 S.C.