Lots to do with little time to spare

Inquilab’s editorial 28 February 2013

Expressing his dislike of the Railway Budget, the way former minister of finance and BJP’s senior leader Yashwant Sinha criticised the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by saying, ‘this Prime Minister has approved all the previous budgets despite those being weak’ is unwarranted.  This attitude (way of expression) simply cannot be described as unwanted because it has been adopted by Yashwant Sinha but in our Parliamentary democracy there are rules and norms of parlance. Members can have lots of complaints and differences with the Prime Minister but that does not allow anyone to use un-parliamentary language against the Prime Minister. Therefore it does not allow anyone to degrade the Prime Minister by saying ‘this prime minister or that prime minister’. Lal Krishan Adwani who during the very early days of UPA government used to call Manmohan Singh a ‘weak prime minister’ is nowhere to be heard of these days, but the way Yashwant Sinha is using the language against Dr. Singh shows that he has some grudge to settle against the Prime Minister.  In July 2012 in one of his statements he describes Manmohan Singh ‘not a head of government but a consultant of the government’.

We are afraid that in the coming weeks and months use of this kind of insulting remarks and gestures will be increased because as the year 2014 approaches nearer the Opposition will start using much more aggressive stance and the government will have no way left except to take a defensive position. If the general budget being presented today also lacks the lustre like the Railway Budget then the Opposition will get another opportunity to fire the tirades against the government and they will not leave any stone unturned to benefit from these weaknesses shown by the UPA government on every front. Thus the Opposition’s posture is getting stronger and stronger by the day with the false belief that the dent they make in the popularity of the government will naturally benefit the Anti Congress and anti UPA parties. There is a possibility that in the coming months Congress may find and use some kind of a winning card but at the moment its position is like a losing gambler who has lost most of his money and is now struggling not only to save the meagre amount left in his coffer but to make good the losses he has made so far.

We do not know that how much satisfied Dr. Manmohan Singh is in his personal capacity as well as the head of the government for the performance of his government but obvious is the fact that any dent in the confidence and respect of the UPA government is resulting equally in the loss of respect and prestige of Dr. Manmohan Singh as a person. The man, who was once heralded as the constructer of economic reforms of the Country and was respected all around, is today being questioned for the failure of those economic reforms. The man who no one ever doubted for his honesty and integrity and who though still is considered beyond all kind of doubts but with that unfortunately he is blamed for remaining quiet and guilty of taking action against different cases of corruption after great delay.

From now on till the parliamentary elections next year Congress and the present UPA government in its leadership have little time to spare and the task to regain confidence is huge and difficult. If the government continues to carry on with its weaknesses in actions and policies and because of compromises on the basis of secularism gives chances one after the other to the very angry and aggressive opposition then no doubt it will hurt not only itself but will also provide strength and opportunity to the sectarian parties and that will in any way be detrimental to the Country as a whole.