Lack of Statesmanship

In recent times political mismanagement, corruption, protests are the only news coming out of India. It seems that the political chaos is fading the shinning India story. A couple of years back when UPA-2 cabinet was announced, there was buzz about the competency of the majority of union cabinet. It was further strengthen by the intellectual capital arranged at the National Advisory Council. Which was considered to be conscience of the government; and Sonia Gandhi as the head NAC gave tooth to the council. The intent was to build consensus among various stakeholders on the key challenges through better consultation. If all was so good the where did this plethora of great policy makers and advisors failed.

How did somebody like Anna Hazare, an ex-peon with a few successful water harvesting projects under his belt went on to take such a government, ironically headed by the father of economic liberalisation in India. Anna with his clean and simple image has been successful in building significant middle class support against the government. He is often compared to Gandhi, contrary to the fact that Gandhi was a barrister with mass appeal ranging from the harijans to the elites.

Anna has surely been successful amongst those who have access to internet as they read his blogs, also with those who have motorbikes and cars to participate in his rallies. Majority of these people often don’t go to vote as they are so busy on internet or watching television in their homes. The majority among these honest Anna supporters are from the missed opportunity class. They are honest because they could not get a chance to participate in the corrupt league. I will not paint every one with the same brush, as I understand there are some white dots but in the population of 1.2 billion it is almost impossible to find them.

To these 10 million internet users, corruption might appear to be the biggest challenge in India. But for the forgotten sections of India there lies various other challenges before corruption. For Schedule Caste their self respect in society is more important than corruption. It is considered to be more honourable to sleep without food than been thrown out of a temple. For tribals, the foremost priority is to save their forests than fight. For Muslims, it is safer to live with corruption than to be slaughtered for a reason ever unknown. These three along with other backward classes constitutes silent but large majority, which  considers political corruption as a given.  

I certainly don’t wish to down play the importance of a strong anti corruption law but 'my way highway' approach is unacceptable. It is easy to taste the mass support but not to digest; congress however has mastered the art after several years in power. I believe that the a strong political will and experience of bringing path breaking laws like NREGA, RTI, RTE will help the government to pass a strong and effective Anti corruption bill. Thereafter Food Security, Anti Communal Riots and Land Reform bills are waiting for its turn to be shouted by opposition. 

The current vacuum in the government is not due political or intellectual incompetency but  due to lack of statesmanship and leadership. To head a nation as diverse as India, one needs  strong statesmanship than wisdom. It becomes even more important if it is a coalition government. Thus the current state of the government can easily be strengthen if PM portrays better political will than his economic and logical wisdom. It would be better if congress takes some lesson from Nehru, Indira or even Vaypayee before it is too late and the fading India Shinning story becomes irreversible.