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Embarrassment in Germany:Manmohan Singh has let down the country on a foreign tour
Embarrassment in Germany
Manmohan Singh has let down the country on a foreign tour, says N.V.Subramanian.
Washington, 13 December 2010: Prime minister Manmohan Singh usually does not need to be told what not to say or to do in public. If anything, he veers to the extremes of omissions. For example, he has not spoken strongly against corruption in the backdrop of the 2G scandal despite a personal reputation for financial integrity and he has not had the courage to accept to have his government face a JPC inquiry into the spectrum allotment scam which has destroyed India's image worldwide.
Instead of speaking and doing where he should and must, which is on the 2G scandal in India, he shares his minimal and hopeless thoughts on the scam in a foreign land, on his arrival for a Germany state visit. Apropos the JPC demand of the opposition, the PM says, "I am worried about the future of the parliamentary system. I hope reason will prevail."
More than once, the PM has commented on domestic politics on overseas trips. It is evident that the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, totally controls the party's domestic politics, and that Manmohan Singh is allowed some limited say in foreign policy. This is one of the terms of division of power (Sonia and the rest of the Gandhi family have no responsibilities) between Manmohan Singh and her. But that still cannot justify his comments on domestic politics abroad, especially as they throw divisive light on India.
This writer and this magazine and political parties like the BJP have earlier castigated the PM for advertising domestic political differences abroad. The PM was more prone to this affliction when he had newly assumed office. He checked himself after the criticisms. Now he is at it again.
You could argue that Manmohan Singh did not reveal anything that was unknown about political differences related to the 2G scam. Foreign diplomatic conversations would be full of it. If the Wikileaks on US state department communications is any indication, the diplomatic community has a fairly good understanding of India's internal political differences, and the assorted chicaneries of the ruling party are well-assessed.
But there is a subtle but significant difference between what is available in the public domain which is readily accessible to the world and how a travelling prime minister responds to it. For instance, if the PM gently had deflected questions on 2G overseas, with a simple statement that he had no intention of speaking on domestic political differences abroad, it would bring him respect and honours in India and with his foreign hosts. His foreign hosts automatically would be warned not to raise sensitive issues of domestic political differences with him. It would strengthen rather than weaken his visit.
But now, foreign governments have been provided an opening by none other than the PM to raise issues of domestic political differences with him. Even if the questioning is polite, it is bound to be incisive. Manmohan Singh is not going to emerge victorious after such encounters, especially after he has run down India's parliamentary democracy so openly.
It is factual to say that the nominal prime-ministership of Manmohan Singh has taken a fair toll of India's parliamentary system of government. As such, India's coalition politics has contributed to the weakening of the system, from which there is no easy present escape. But the situation infinitely has been worsened by the division of power between Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, where she wields all the clout and he rubber-stamps her decisions.
It is this peculiar and disastrous construction of UPA/ Congress politics that has strained India's parliamentary system. Obviously, Manmohan Singh is unlikely to focus on this. But to transfer blame on the parliamentary system to cover his own inadequacies and failures is unacceptable, especially as it has occurred during a foreign tour. If the parliamentary system is so unworkable, why doesn't he resign? It is quite besides the point that no political system anywhere in the world is working, not least the US presidential system under Barack Obama.
Manmohan Singh clearly has undermined himself, the parliamentary system and India by his statements in Germany. At the very least, he deserves a verbal roasting for his staggering indiscretion. On the other hand, if only to save the parliamentary system from apostates like Manmohan Singh, the opposition must further raise the heat on the 2G scandal and wrest a JPC probe.
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