UPA-2 is in a celebratory mood as it completes three
years in office but the nation is apparently in mourning. The single biggest
achievement of the Congress-led coalition Government, which has been hurtling
down from one crisis to another over the last 36 months, is that it continues
to remain in office and the credit for it goes not to any grand strategist or
achievement but an abject surrender to the whims and fancies of each and every
coalition partner.
Sometimes, one wonders whether it was the same
coalition led by the same Prime Minister
which in its earlier tenure refused to succumb to the Left’s pressure tactic on
the Indo-US Nuclear Deal and chose to go for a confidence vote rather than
going back on its commitment.
From roll back of fuel prices to FDI in retail and
from NCTC to sacking the country’s Railway Minister on the day he presented the
Budget, this Government has been going out of its way to placate to the unjustified
and often outrageous demands of some of its allies, just to cling on to power,
rather than display political will and face the electorate boldly.
Even the Supreme Court took cognizance at the
undignified manner in which Ministers were treating the Prime Minister. One
also saw the pathetic sight of a Minister of State for Railways refusing to
obey the Prime Minister’s director to visit a mishap site and a Chief
Minister’s refusal to accompany him to a neighbouring country.
The current tenure of the UPA-2 has become synonymous
with corruption and unprecedented price rise. The price of Moong Dal has
leapforked from Rs 24 in May 2004 to Rs 64 in May 2012, while that of LPG has
gone up from Rs 244 to Rs 399 in the same period. Petrol went up from Rs 33 to Rs
65, milk from Rs 14 to rs 32 per litre, tea from Rs 80 to Rs 180, sugar from Rs
14 to Rs 32 and rice from Rs 10 to Rs 23 to cite the prices of a few crucial
kitchen items.
Under the leadership of the economist Prime Minister,
India’s current account deficit is estimated to reach an all time high of
around 4 per cent of GDP in the year ended March 2012 and this means that an ordinary consumer needs to shell out more
for buying an imported good or a foreign travel which would now become more
costlier to him. Apparently, India which came out of BOP crisis
with the help of Dr. Manmohan Singh is looking all set to revisit the crisis once again after 21 years
(when the country had to mortgage its gold in 1991). In fact, the current
levels of India’s
fiscal deficit (5.9 per cent) are higher than those levels as seen during 1991
crisis (5.4 per cent) and the Rupee has fallen to an all time low hitting
exports and foreign travel.
The Government is tom tomming about the GDP growth
but the credit for the same to a great extent goes to the consistently good
monsoons all these years.
From Adarsh and Commwealth Games to 2G and now the
coal gate as its third anniversary gift, the UPA-2 has been on the defensive
throughout this tenure. Rather than being pro active in taking the menace head
on, the Government acted only under pressure from the Supreme Court. The flip
flop manner in which it dealt with civil society movements leading a crusade
against corruption only reflected the hollowness of its ‘commitments’ to combat
corruption.
More than anything else, the single biggest
contribution of the UPA has been creating a crisis of credibility,
unprecedented in the nation’s history. Trust Deficit has become the hall mark
of this Government. The Government does not trust its allies and vice-versa,
the states don’t trust the Centre and vice-versa, the Army Chief does not trust
the Defence Minister and vice-versa – trust has become the biggest casualty of
UPA-2.
As for internal security, naxalites are wreaking havoc
across the country with kidnapping of senior officials and abject surrender by
the state becoming the norm.
The less said the better about foreign policy. The
recent manner in which the country voted at multilateral fora against Sri Lanka
and Iran, the pull out from South China Sea and the resumption of talks with
Pakistan without any progress on the action against 26/11 accused by Islamabad
only reflects the extension of this surrender doctrine beyond the nation’s
borders.
The list is endless and one can go on and on. Lack of
political will has paralysed the functioning of this Government beyond
redemption. If UPA-1 got good marks for RTI and NREGA in its first tenure, the
sum of UPA-2 plus three (years) adds up to zero.
Its time for UPA to do some serious introspection.
Otherwise it would be too late.
