Brij Bhardwaj
With passage of time UPA two team led by Dr Manmohan Singh is looking tired and directionless. It has many members past their prime who should have been retired long ago instead of being saddled with responsibility of running the Government in top positions. The twenty first century demands a lot from the people at the helm of administration which has become complex and demanding where one has to be pro-active and deal with complex issues.
It is for the first time that Prime Minister being a member of Rajya Sabha is not the leader of the House in Lok Sabha. In the past this job was handled by Mr Pranab Mukerjee whose election as President of India has left a void. The UPA leadership has placed Sushil Kumar Shinde in his place as leader of the House and Home Minister also despite his indifferent performance as Power minister. During his tenure the country witnessed complete blackout on a scale never witnessed before in Indian history.
The result was that Sonia Gandhi had to play the role of the leader in Lok Sabha finding that the ruling party case was going by default. In all likelihood her burden is going to increase as there is no one to shoulder this responsibility. The tragedy is that Congress Party has no dearth of talent , Many youngsters who got elected have no work even. Those who were given the ranks of Ministers of State or Deputy Ministers have little responsibility or work to occupy them.
What UPA urgently needs is a large infusion of youth, though for our purposes it covers men and women in forties and not in thirties as defined in Europe and USA. There is little time left for UPA two to change the public perception about it being a non-performer and the sooner such exercise is undertaken better it will be. There has been a demand from a vocal section that Rahul Gandhi should undertake greater responsibility in running the affairs of the party as well as Congress. But his induction alone is not likely to make any difference to the situation on the ground.
The need of the hour is a change of atleast half a dozen Ministers who could be sent into retirement by filling the vacancies of Governors which are vacant or by retiring some of the bureaucrats working as Governors. Recently some of the senior leaders of the Congress party in Central Hall of Parliament openly advocated such a course and said that if some of the deadwood was removed the performance of the Congress party could improve dramatically both in terms of governance as well as winning elections in the States.
Agreed Congress is a hundred years old party and India is an old civilisation, but it does not imply that we should stick with leaders in seventies only who are out of touch with present realities and have become a burden instead of being an asset. To start with any state leader who is not in a position to win a Lok Sabha seat or contribute in helping the party to capture power in his State has no business to occupy high positions at the center or adorn the benches of Rajya Sabha. Exceptions can be made in few cases where persons are technocrat or have richly contributed in the past but to make it a general rule is likely to discourage induction of fresh talent and help in building a group of sycophants instead of leading to growth on the basis of merit.
The recent trends in politics have shown induction of fresh blood has paid rich dividends. We saw in West Bengal mercurial Mamata Banerjee dislodging the stranglehold of the Left parties on the State while in U.P rise of Akhilesh Yadav led to emergence of Samajwadi party winning the State Assembly poll with a huge margin. Same also holds good in case of Bihar where Nitish kumar has changed rules of game while Naveen Patnaik looks invincible in Orissa. Narendra Modi in Gujarat has woven his own magic and many in BJP are looking at him as a future prime Minister who can change their fortune.
The lesson in politics is that political party which closes its ears to new ideas and fresh talent has no future. It is time that party like Congress realises that time has come for change. Indira Gandhi made this change at one time so did Rajiv Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi can help Rahul Gandhi to play a role in shaping future of Congress, but he would need a team and a playing field to suit his style and not made to carry dead wood.
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