Commentary/Vir Sanghvi
Inder Gujral has only about a year in office -- at best
Inder Gujral needs to get tough and fight the wimp factor.
No matter how well intentioned the prime minister is, there is little doubt he neither understands political
timing nor appreciates the need to seem tough and committed to
what he believes.
The latest in a series of own-goals is the abrupt transfer of
CBI director 'Tiger' Joginder Singh. Joginder should never have been
appointed to the job. His record as a police officer is undistinguished
and his only qualifications were his ability to speak to H D Deve
Gowda in Kannada and a recommendation from Harkishen Singh Surjeet.
Both men were quick to disown him. Deve Gowda claimed Joginder
defected to Sitaram Kesri's side in the last three months of his
government, and Surjeet now says he had nothing to do with
the appointment.
Deve Gowda would have sacked Joginder had his government not fallen.
Gujral had decided to move him within weeks of taking over because
of his hunger for publicity, his bumbling, bungling style and
his mission to transform the CBI from India's premier investigative
agency to a rusty old vessel that leaked scurrilous titbits to
a credulous media.
But because nobody could agree on a successor -- R C Sharma, the
obvious choice, was on extension and D R Karthikeyan's supporters
were lobbying hard to get him the job -- Gujral put off the decision.
In the interim, Joginder, who knew he was about to return to
the wilderness, quickly took defensive action.
Even though he had sought to scupper the investigation into the
fodder scam by acting against U N Biswas, the real investigator,
last year, he now recast himself as the scourge of Laloo Yadav.
By the time Gujral finally got his act together, the timing could
not have been worse. Joginder was in France representing India
at an international conference, the Janata Dal elections were
due, the noose was tightening around Laloo's neck and the press
bought the line the transfer was sparked by the intrepid
Tiger's investigative abilities.
Why would the media be so willing to believe that Inder Gujral,
generally regarded as a decent and honest man, would transfer
officers in an effort to shield a corrupt chief minister?
I suspect it is not because anybody regards Gujral as dishonest.
They merely regard him as unable to stand up to pressure. And
they believe he is unwilling to state his case upfront.
Within a fortnight of assuming office, Gujral crumbled under pressure
and sacrificed Bhabani Sengupta even though he must have known
that the charges made by Chandra Shekhar against Sengupta were
unfair.
It is possible to argue that Sengupta should never have been
appointed. But once Gujral had given him the job, it was his duty to stand by his man. To do anything less would
be to give the impression of weakness.
Gujral probably did not realise that the Sengupta episode hurt
him more than it hurt his appointee. A septuagenarian academic
can always find another sinecure. But a prime minister who succumbs
to pressure in his very first month in office will find it difficult
to ever regain his authority.
The same unwillingness to take stands is also apparent in matters
of policy. It is no secret that Gujral supports the Tata-Singapore
Airlines project. He opposed C M Ibrahim's aviation policy when
he was part of Deve Gowda's Cabinet. As prime minister he wants
to alter that policy.
But his behaviour has been distinctly un-prime ministerial. First,
he embarrassed India by attacking a domestic policy in a foreign
country. Next, he tried to sack Ibrahim but backed down in
the face of pressure from Deve Gowda. Then, he got the civil aviation
secretary to draft a new policy which was pro Tata-SIA behind
Ibrahim's back and to leak this policy to the media.
When the Left and Ibrahim himself objected, the ministry quickly
denied there was any new draft policy, only to the caught
lying on the front page of the Indian Express. To date,
Gujral has never told his own civil aviation minister that he
wants to change the policy -- which surely, is his right as prime
minister.
On broadcasting policy, the situation is only slightly better.
Gujral never approved of Ibrahim's Broadcasting Bill. Within days
of taking over, he removed Ibrahim and gave the portfolio to Jaipal
Reddy. Everybody assumed a new Bill was forthcoming.
No such luck.
Reddy has said he does not support Ibrahim's Bill, but has
forwarded it to Parliament nevertheless. Why forward a Bill you
don't like? Well, because the new minister has 'an open mind'.
But surely, it is not an empty mind? Gujral and Reddy must
know what kind of policy they want. Why doesn't the Cabinet formulate
a new broadcasting policy and then send a Bill that it supports
to Parliament? Largely, one suspects, because the two men are
too frightened to take a decision.
I could go on. There is no shortage of such instances. Is it any
wonder that other politicians believe the prime minister can't
take the heat?
I hope that the public perception of Gurjal is wrong. He has demonstrated
courage in the past -- most notably over Sanjay Gandhi and the Emergency.
But it is also true his style is slow and consensual. And
because he is not street-smart, the notion of political timing
is alien to him.
But this is a special situation. Inder Gujral has only about a
year in office -- at best. He does not have the time for consensus
and for prevarication. History has taught us once people
see a leader as a man who will bend, they stop listening to him.
And eventually, they stop supporting him.
V P Singh bragged about managing contradictions but ultimately
those very contradictions finished his government off in just nine
months. George Bush seemed so unwilling to take hard decisions
that his defeat after just one term in the White House (despite
the Gulf War triumph) was attributed to the 'wimp factor'.
It is this wimp factor that Inder Gujral needs to combat. Once
he is seen as weak then people will believe the worst of him --
as indeed they do about his motives in transferring Joginder Singh.
Throughout his career, Gujral has cared too much about what his
colleagues and his friends think. But now that he has reached
the pinnacle of political achievement and has nothing left to
lose, it is time to shed that attitude.
In the end, it won't matter how the Janata Dal regards him. All
that really matters is how history will remember him.
Tell us what you think of this column
|