Amit Kushari (IAS Retd)
On Republic day eve the Rashtrapati, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, gave the nation three or four very important sane advices which we need to look into very carefully. His first advice was that intemperate ,populist anarchy cannot replace good governance. This advice is obviously directed to the Aam aadmi party which had created chaos in the capital in the name of raw populism. They have got a very good opportunity to govern but they are frittering away this valuable opportunity. People had a lot of expectations from Shri Kejriwal, and some people still have, and he should try to fulfill the electoral promises as fast as possible. After the exit of the rebellious Mr. Binny, AAP is left with only 27 members in a house of 70, and even with the support of 8 Congress MLAs they have a strength of only 35 in a house of 70. They are surviving because of the support of a lone JDU member, Shoaib Iqbal. So AAP must hurry up and do something very good before their government crashes down and they have to face fresh elections. By refusing to dismiss Somnath Bharti, Kejriwal has blundered. He can still rectify this mistake.
The second piece of advice was perhaps directed towards the Congress party which rules the Central government. The President said,”If Indians are enraged,it is because they are witnessing corruption and waste of natural resources. If governments do not remove these flaws, voters will remove governments.” The Congress party, which is flooded with corruption charges, has to take serious note of this advice. The common man in India is indeed furious today with the Congress party for having tormented them in a myriad ways. There has been unprecedented inflation, unnecessary fuss about LPG cylinders, Adhaar cards, harassing the public for set top boxes for TV viewing, very bad public distribution system and so on. And still they have the audacity to say in their advertisements that they have done a lot for the people (jan jan ko chhuya….). Yes, they have touched every one indeed but in a very negative way. All TV channels and surveys are indicating that Congress will get only 80 to 90 seats in the Lok Sabha polls in spite of all the hype of ‘Food security for the poor’, ‘MNREGA’, new airports,ATMs etc, etc. I am not surprised that Shri Pranab Mukherjee, a devoted Congress man all his life, gave this sane advice to the Government of India. Although he was the senior most Congress man, in 1984 the inexperienced Rajiv Gandhi was chosen as Prime Minister only because Mukherjee was not born in the Gandhi family. In 2012 again, Shri Mukherjee was shunted away to Rashtrapati Bhavan to keep the decks clear for Rajiv Gandhi’s son to be made PM. As the senior most Congress man with proven record of merit, undoubtedly he was the best choice for being the PM candidate for the Congress. If Pranab Mukherjee had been made the PM in 1984, Congress would not have seen such bad days. The going has become so tough for Congress that many senior ministers are taking refuge in the Rajya Sabha. Some veteran MPs are running away from the Hindi heartland, feeling the heat of Narendra Modi. Mohammad Azaruddin is leaving his old Moradabad seat to take refuge in West Bengal since weather predictions have said that the ‘Modi cyclone’ which is hitting the mainland of India, will not affect the coastal areas of Gangetic West Bengal.
The third valuable advice of the President is that Indians should not vote for a fractured Lok Sabha as that could be catastrophic. All the opinion polls are indicating that BJP will come close to 210 seats in the new Lok Sabha. Along with allies like Telugu Desam party, YSR Congress, MDMK,Shiv Sena, Akali Dal, AGP, the combination will come close to 255+— just about 20 seats short of forming a stable government. My interpretation of the President’s third advice is that Indian voters should give this combination a little push of 20 seats so that India is not saddled with an unstable 3rd Front government. I apprehend BJP may not get the support of big regional forces like TMC, AIADMK, BSP because of electoral compulsions.
This is , however, my own intuition and interpretation only and readers may not necessarily agree with me.
(The author is former Financial Commissioner, J&K. Feedback to the author at 09748635185, amitkus@hotmail.com)
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