As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered what may well have been his last Independence Day oration from the Red Fort, his mood was perhaps like that of Napoleon urging on his recalcitrant and undisciplined troops at the Pyrenees. Napoleon is said to have used language that Dr Singh may frequently want to use but won't. Still, after seven years in office, his mood must surely be the same. And why would it not be?
Thanks to Sonia Gandhi — and let us, for once, place the blame where it belongs instead of whipping Dr Singh all the time — India has become a like plane flying with a jet engine on one wing and a propeller on the other. And, as the Anna Hazare-Baba Ramdev fiascos show, its rudder has been mostly shot away by Kapil Sibal, Manish Tiwari and a few other cowboys.
Dr Singh may not be able to do much about the engines but the rudder is another matter altogether. Indeed, with the auto pilot also somewhat damaged, never has there been a greater need to repair it.
Amidst all this, there is talk of a mid-term poll, spread by clever loyalists of the Family. This, one must assume, is designed to keep the allies in line because the Opposition, even if broke, would be only too happy to go to polls by the end of the year.
Eyes off the ball
Jawaharlal Nehru once said something about India having a tryst with destiny. Dr Singh, being more prosaic, is not given to such hyperbole. If anything, he has always had his eyes on his main goal and done whatever is required of him to attain it. Pride has not been a restraining factor. To this precept, at least, he has been faithful.
But, somewhere along the way during the last seven years, he has forgotten another precept he practised till he became prime minister: take it one step at a time and focus on the essentials. Today, he seems helpless in identifying what those essentials are. So helpless, indeed, that even a novice like Rahul Gandhi is able to pretend that he is the real prime minister.
The Congress Party says this is the only job he can do well. But we, at least, should be mindful of a salient fact: not having held a responsible job in his life, at 42 he is a novice at everything. Amazing, really. Only in India could a fellow who has done nothing at all with his life be considered fit only for the topmost job in the country.
Never has there been a greater need for the Prime Minister to take charge. The Government of India, Dr Singh's government, if one may remind him and not Sonia's or Rahul's, has not appeared so bumbling, clueless and, indeed, pointless as it does now.
Redemption time, Sir
How did it all come to such a sorry pass, that too in such a short span of time? Partly, this is because he is being advised by some fools chosen by Sonia Gandhi. Partly it is because his secretariat has become ineffective. Partly it is because the Cabinet Secretariat has failed him. Partly it is because his ministers are not interested in their portfolios and say so openly. Partly it is because his media advisor despises the media so the Prime Minister's image has been damaged severely.
But mostly it is because the Prime Minister is allowing himself to be held back. This suggests one of two things. Either that he doesn't care any more or that there is still something he wants. Whatever the reason, it is time he redeemed himself.
Historians will eventually find justifications for everything. But even the best of them has not been able to help Nero and Muhammad Shah ‘Rangila'.