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Elections never present the best face of anyone anywhere. But some kind of rhetoric just insults one’s intelligence. Two things that have really made me feel that is the rhetoric coming from the Congress. Specially the replies to BJP points and the points made by Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Singh.
Dr. Singh, in my eyes, has never really distinguished himself as far as speeches is concerned. No, not because he is not a forceful speaker .. but whatever he says at the podium is just an insult to one’s intelligence.
LK Advani has made two points against him:
1. Dr. Singh is a weak PM
Constitution and the Executive: The Constitution provides for a Parliamentary form of government which is federal in structure with certain unitary features. The constitutional head of the Executive of the Union is the President. As per Article 79 of the Constitution of India, the council of the Parliament of the Union consists of the President and two Houses known as the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha). Article 74(1) of the Constitution provides that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head to aid and advise the President, who shall exercise his functions in accordance to the advice. The real executive power is thus vested in the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House of the People (Lok Sabha). Every State has a Legislative Assembly. Certain States have an upper House also called State Legislative Council. There is a Governor for each state who is appointed by the President. Governor is the Head of the State and the executive power of the State is vested in him. The Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister as its head advises the Governor in the discharge of the executive functions. The Council of the Ministers of a state is collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly of the State. The Constitution distributes legislative powers between Parliament and State legislatures as per the lists of entries in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution. The residuary powers vest in the Parliament. The centrally administered territories are called Union Territories.
If I look at Dr. Singh’s track record as a PM, it is pretty clear that the first statement is true!
Arjun Singh and Reservations – PM not consulted and not informed: Let’s start from Arjun Singh coming out with announcements on Reservations. It is now known specially after the fact that Arjun Singh was following his own agenda, which the PM had to then acquiese to AFTER the damage had been done. The result?
We have IITs that have been dipping into their endowment funds to pay the salaries of their professors.. and here we have a situation where the HR Minister goes and lays down a scenario where more seats are to be created without enough professors and creation of more IITs!
I am not sure what kind of degree you need to understand this stupidity of the situation and the damage that is being done to the highest institutions of India… but you certainly don’t need to be a PhD. in Economics and be one of the most kick-ass economist in the country! All you need is a bit of spine and honesty!
Delhi Blasts and Modi’s Warning: Modi told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and National Security Adviser (NSA) M.K. Narayanan, 10 days before the Delhi’s blasts that based on interrogation of the Gujarat terrorists it was clear that similar blasts were being planned for Delhi. What did the trio do? Just sleep! And then AFTER the blast, their story went – that the intelligence was not enough! Huh? What did Dr. Singh, Patil and Narayana want? That the bomb planter CALL them up and tell them??? WHAT? So, Dr. Singh and his National Security team was just sitting on their back-sides.
Mumbai Attacks and Shivraj Patil: The US had warned India about the nature and type of attack and even the broad timeline of the attack. Heck, short of the ISI calling Shivraj Patil up and telling him the exact location of the boat coming on shore… Indian Intelligence and Home Ministry had enough “information” to figure out what was in the offing! YET, it happened. And after that, those who know behind-the-scene happenings say that Dr. Singh was “FORCED” to accept the resignation of Shivraj Patil! [5] So much so that he decided to quit himself over that.
Now, again, it doesn’t show a guy with a lot of strength in his guts. It clearly shows a person who was weak and did not have enough strength to stand up to his own council of ministers!
JD Tytler “Clean Chit” – PM not consulted and not informed: JD Tytler was given a clean chit by CBI over the Sikh massacres of 1984 and the Head of the Government was not even informed!? After the entire drama, Dr. Singh now comes and tells us, with a straight face that he had no idea what the Intelligence Agencies were upto?
An “unconsulted” and “uninformed” PM!
Do you see a consistent thread in all these instances? Dr. Singh was not consulted AND not informed. As the Prime Minister of a Cabinet which owns COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY as per the Constitution, the PM is where the “buck should stop”. It is bad that he was not the one taking the final decision…. his ministers did not even bother to even consult him. If you think that was bad.. here is what is worse.. AFTER taking the decision without consulting the PM.. no one even bothered to even INFORM the PM of it! So, if it wasn’t for the newspaper, the poor guy would have no freaking idea as to who is doing what in his Cabinet! Thank God, that he is an “intellectual” and so may be reading the newspapers regularly.. so at least we know that our PM knows “something” about the actions of his ministers! But that knowledge is as good or as bad as the rest of us!
Now, these are the decisions of which we KNOW from the press. I am thinking as many would be.. what about the hundreds and thousands of those decisions that are taken .. which can harm and put our nation to utmost danger every day that PM has no freaking idea about??
Now, I am not sure what you call such a PM, but he certainly isn’t a strong leader in my eyes!
“Singh is India and India is Singh”
Now, to this Sonia retorted that criticism of PM was the insult of the nation. Oh Really??? You know it is time, that Congress stopped such CRAP! First criticism of Gandhi was an insult to the nation, then criticism of Nehru was an insult to the Nation, then it was Indira Gandhi (well.. as the sycophantic saying went “Indira is India and India is Indira”)… then it was Rajiv Gandhi on that pedestal .. now it is Dr. Singh. I am sick and tired of DIETIES in garb of politicians.. and PETTY ones at that! Not ONE of these people have been “above board” on many cases of integrity! YET, we have had to treat them with reverence!
2. Dr. Singh should stand for the Elections
Democracy’s most fundamental assumption is GOVERNANCE BY REPRESENTATION. This rule is the sine quo non of democracy. Because if a person NOMINATED by his cronies gets to rule the country…. that is known as MAFIA rule or DICTATORSHIP.
And in a democracy, the ONLY way to get the representation of the people is fight an election. It does not matter whether you are GOD yourself, but if we really are serious about our claim of being a democracy, we OUGHT to have represented elected leaders ruling over the country! If representation is NOT going to be the basis of our leadership then let’s stop the crap about India being a democracy! Because it doesn’t cut both ways.. SORRY!
And, what plea does Dr. Singh offer for not fighting the elections and YET being the PM? Three examples:
All three were short term choices and done to tide over an emergency time. And second, and MOST important of it all – all three were CONGRESS backed Governments!
There are certain rules which are never made into law but the intention of the Constitution makers is very clear in that area. The ONLY reason why the Constitution makers probably did not include the rule that an elected leader could ONLY be the Minister or PM, is because of those extra-ordinary situations, where maybe the entire Cabinet or large set of MPs.
Constitution has kept the delineation between the nominated and elected candidates very clear – Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha respectively. The latter is the Executive and the former is part of the Legislative branch of the Government. Now, Executive is the one that RUNS the country. They implement the policies and laws that Legislative agrees to or makes. And so, it is important that Executive adheres to the CORE spirit of a Democracy religiously!
Congress, unfortunately, has repeatedly and consistently violated the core precepts of Democracy.
Let us look at another issue while we are at it:
1. IC 814 hijiacking and the Terrorist Swap I don’t know if any of us remember, but before Jaswant Singh took the infamous flight, hundreds of relatives of the hostages were sitting in Dharna in front of 7 Race Course Road. And who was visiting them REGULARLY? Brinda Karat. For the uninitiated, she is CPI honcho and wife of Prakash Karat. What did the crowd collected by the Communists shout?
“We want our relatives back. What difference does it make to us what you have to give the hijackers?” a man shouted. “We don’t care if you have to give away Kashmir,”
When Jaswant Singh came out to say how the decision was important from National Interest standpoint, and how we had to look at all the sides, he was told: “Bhaad me jaaye desh aur bhaand me jaaye desh ka hit. (To hell with the country and national interest),”
The other remark heard in those days was: “Why can’t you release the terrorists now when our relatives are being held hostage?” and “Give away Kashmir, give them anything they want, we don’t give a damn.”
Now, when Jaswant Singh took the decision to go to Kandahar, it was against THAT backdrop! In return what he got back were the hostages.
1971 War and 90,000 Prisoners Now let me put something into perspective. Jaswant Singh released THREE prisoners. Dangerous? Sure… VERY! But if you go back a few years, in 1971.. India released 90,000 Prisoners from Pakistan after winning the war and the cowardly surrender of the Pakistani army. What did Indira Gandhi get for those 90,000 prisoners? SHIMLA AGREEMENT? What was that piece of paper WORTH?
Honestly, I really want to know, what did we get in return for all that? Can anyone explain it to me?
Reference Links:
1. Disrespect of PM is disrespect of country: Sonia
2. I won’t give Advani privilege of being alternative PM: Manmohan
3. PM says he was not consulted on CBI’s clean chit to Tytler
4. Anti-Sikh riots: Why CBI is opposing PM’s proposal
5. When the PM decided to quit
6. Decision on quota is final: Arjun
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