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A dismal year has ended appropriately — with a fiasco in Parliament; the only reform measure of the year stuck in limbo; the stock market down 24 per cent; the business mood at its lowest ebb in years; the weak rupee signalling the gathering storm clouds of external vulnerability; and key economic indicators spelling Trouble with a capital T. If 2010 was the year of scams (or the unearthing of scams), the compensation was that the economic news was better than in the two previous years. Now you can scan the horizon and spot just one piece of good news — food prices.
Two more years of this is more than the country should be asked to take. So — even though it would be considered politically premature by both the Congress and the BJP — it may be best to think in terms of fresh elections. The lengthening list of pending Bills makes it clear that the government is unable to get legislation through Parliament. The Congress’ allies in the ruling coalition are simply not pulling in the same direction. And, for all their assertions of Parliament’s exclusive right to legislate, the present lot of parliamentarians is not interested in any kind of Lok Pal. It is easy to guess why. So much, then, for tackling corruption as the issue of the year. Anna Hazare might find takers again if he echoes Shakespeare and says “a plague on both your houses”.
As for the Prime Minister, he brought with him two reputational assets: a blemishless record of probity, and his historic role in salvaging the economy in the 1990s and setting it on the path to rapid growth. Both assets have depreciated sharply. The aam aadmi would be justified in wondering what use it is to have an honest Prime Minister if he cannot rein in rogue colleagues. As for economic reform and macroeconomic management, there has been little of the first and latterly a poor record on the second. The result is that the liabilities now hold attention — the lack of political weight, and the inability to pull the Congress behind him on key issues. Rather, Manmohan Singh has been forced to pilot the Congress leadership’s big ideas on entitlement even though his past record suggests that he must have little faith in their efficacy. In his frustration, Dr. Singh has taken to blaming the messengers — the media, businessmen — for his manifest inability to deal with the situation. It is symptomatic of the malaise that he can’t (or won’t) sort out the clash between those running the unique identity programme and the National Population Register.
