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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 2G spectrum scam: Curiously transparent PMO by CL Manoj

2G spectrum scam: Curiously transparent PMO by CL Manoj

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published Published on Sep 27, 2011   modified Modified on Sep 27, 2011

There can be two ways of looking at the latest mess on the 2G spectrum front in the form of the Prime Minister's Office supplying a sensitive note to a request under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The widely-held view locates the root of this mess in rivalry between finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and home minister P Chidambaram, stemming from presumed prime ministerial ambitions when Dr Manmohan Singh faces serial crisis. Another explanation is yielded by the final outcome of the controversy: clipped wings and clipped ambitions for putative challengers to Dr Singh's position.

We may never get clarity as to which of these possibilities, or something else, was actually at work when a PMO official passed the internal note, prepared by the finance ministry for the consumption of Dr Singh and his team, to an RTI activist who also happens to head BJP's RTI cell! Congressmen love conspiracy theories and the air over the Congress headquarters is thick with fancy theories.

The way a PMO official released, as coolly as one hands over car key to a friend, a delicate internal note to the RTI network, exposing the home minister to risk is baffling. This is nothing but death-wish unless PMO thinks its top priority is to make the Prime Minister the darling of the RTI fans.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that this note was not Pranab Mukherjee's unilateral exercise but the result of a series of interactions and discussions the officials of the PMO and the finance ministry have had. It is testimony to Dr Singh's character that not even his worst critics have, so far, accused him of being silly or a schemer against colleagues.

Of course, the Congress flaunts RTI in a big way even though UPA regime has been a major victim of RTI's sting. Whether one likes it or not, the fact is that state governments and ministers have been shielding their self-interest when it comes to dealing with RTI queries for sensitive information.

The recent killing of an RTI activist in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh triggered reports of how she had been pushing for sensitive informations about senior ministers. Left leaders may have been quick in seeking Chidambaram's resignation even though their own erstwhile West Bengal government had stonewalled all RTI inquiries about its deal with Tatas in Singur. Till today, there is no evidence of RTI becoming a poll plank unless the PMO wants to go to polls next time flaunting its transparency record.

Dr Singh has had the opportunity to learn under the very astute late P V Narasimha Rao. When the PM is set to complete seven-and-half years in office, it is worth recalling how Rao had dealt with his own eventful years in office. Like Dr Singh, Prime Minister Rao too was a great hit on foreign turf, for his positioning of India in the post-USSR world and for economic reforms.

On the domestic front, his handling of Punjab militancy was widely admired. Though Rao suffered for trusting Kalyan Singh on Babri masjid, he personally brokered an alliance between Mulayam Singh and Kanshi Ram to ensure BJP did not win the next UP elections that, otherwise, would have been projected as popular endorsement of the mosque demolition. Similarly, Rao also rallied Congress satraps of MP and HP to ensure BJP could not script 'a revenge victory' in these states when elections were held a year after the demolition of the mosque.

Despite such political manoeuvring, he finally lost mainly due to two self-inflicted wounds. A wrong alliance in Tamil Nadu might have done him in in numbers game, but Rao started losing when the public started perceiving his government as corrupt - even though Rao cleared his name in each case - and, more importantly, when he lost the support of his own party colleagues after a split led by N D Tiwari and the mysterious Jain hawala diary episode.

But even as the UPA regime is battling a series of corruption charges, Dr Singh, still, has two major advantages that Rao lacked: an Opposition, torn in leadership/programmatic crises and, on the internal front, the backing of Sonia Gandhi.

How unpredictable the twists in corruption politics can be was demonstrated on Tuesday when the BJP brass, all eager to hear 'bad news' for Chidambaram from the court, ended up watching their own warrior Sudheendra Kulkarni heading to Tihar jail.

As the BJP learns its own courtroom lessons, Dr Singh too should, in the wake of the RTI exposA©, learn from the Rao experience; that the best shield in the time of political and legal tests is to put your own house in order by uniting the core team, leaving no scope for fatal divisions among the generals. For that, the PMO should start functioning more as a political command than an RTI clearing house.

The Economic Times, 28 September, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/2g-spectrum-scam-curiously-transparent-pmo/articleshow/10151483.cms


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