Dr Singh, why don’t we talk?

Like the Bourbons, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government seems to learn nothing and unlearn nothing. There can be no other explanation for the manner — both ham-handed and insensitive — in which it raised the petrol price last week for the 12th time in the last 18 months. The storm of protest it has thus invited would surprise no one but itself. The imperious way in which it inflicted the fresh burden on long-suffering consumers — hasn’t finance minister Pranab Mukherjee admitted that inflation has reached an “unacceptable level”? — is entirely in keeping with its bumbling style that has, paradoxically, been its hallmark since its return to power with a stronger mandate in May 2009.

The process began with Sharm el-Sheikh where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed with his Pakistani opposite number, Yousuf Raza Gilani, a joint declaration for which there was little support in the country, including within the Congress Party. The ensuing embarrassment was huge.

Then followed the 2-G spectrum, Commonwealth Games and sundry other scams that, too, were mishandled. Eventually the government did take action and send former telecommunications minister A. Raja, belonging to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK); a Rajya Sabha member of the same party, K. Kanimozhi; Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, the all-powerful head of the CWG Organising Committee; and some corporate honchos to Tihar Jail. But the government’s strenuous efforts to claim credit for this have added up to naught. For the simple reason that it acted too late, having stonewalled the corruption issue until it became impossible to do so because of intense pressure by the media, parliamentary Opposition and, above all, the higher judiciary. The story of the reluctant action on the cash-for-votes scandal during the October 2008 confidence vote in the Lok Sabha is roughly the same.

As for the UPA’s, more accurately Congress’, Himalayan blunder over Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign, the less said the better. But it is necessary briefly to revert to the Sharm el-Sheikh episode to analyse the root cause why the present government unfailingly lands itself into a mess again and again.

Notwithstanding 26/11 and Pakistan’s continued dragging of feet over taking appropriate action against the masterminds and perpetrators of the Mumbai outrage nearly three years ago, most Indians would agree that the two neighbours have to remain engaged with each other. The only question is how far and how fast the dialogue can progress. Unfortunately, policymakers did not explain or even disclose their roadmap to the public to win its support then, nor have they done so since. (Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said on September 16 that Pakistan has reopened its terrorism training camps, which is surely not conducive to “composite” or “comprehensive” dialogue with the Western neighbour.) Some negotiations have undoubtedly to be conducted in secret. But without educating the public about the general direction of policy, especially in sensitive areas in advance, this just would not work.

As a very young and very junior reporter — luckily assigned to cover Jawaharlal Nehru’s speeches in Delhi and outside — I used to fret why the iconic leader found it necessary to explain at length to his extensive audiences even in remote villages the need for economic planning, why China must be seated in the UN, the imperatives of equality in India’s plural society and the great importance of science and technology that couldn’t develop without a “scientific temper”.

Indira Gandhi kept up her father’s tradition until the Emergency and directly communicated her message to the public even when she was in trouble over devaluation in the earlier years and because of Gujarat Navnirman and the J.P. movement later. Rajiv Gandhi did it in fits and starts. Now the wholesome practice is virtually extinct.
The simple point is that even if the hike in the price of petrol is inevitable, which is disputed by many, could not the people be informed of the reasons before delivering the blow? Evidently the answer is that government leaders who didn’t deign to consult even their allies within the UPA are not expected to bother about the herd called people in general. Their lip service to aam aadmi is strictly for the birds. No wonder, both the Trinamul Congress and the DMK have protested. They have also demanded that the price hike be “rolled back”. This places whoever runs the government on the horns of a dilemma. If the decision is not revoked, the evidently soured allies might join the united Opposition to defeat the government. A rollback would mean loss of face.

This, however, is not the end of the tragic tale. No sooner was the vast Indian public told that from the midnight hour it must pay more for every litre of petrol than some genius scheduled for the next day a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers to substantially push up the price of cooking gas. It was postponed because the allies decided to boycott it. Once again there may be good reasons for wanting to reduce the subsidy on LPG, especially to the affluent. But, in heaven’s name, is there no one left in the Congress with an instinct for the public sentiment? No government should be deaf to the people’s woes, or so dumb as
not to be able to explain its difficulties to them.