Race Course Road/ The Sunday Standard/ September 11, 2011

Manmohan tries to plug leaking cabinet

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is more concerned about the leaks regarding secret Cabinet meetings than the Opposition’s attack on him in Parliament. For the past few months, informal discussions on important issues have been finding their way not only to prominent Opposition leaders but also to TV news channels. The Prime Minister is already peeved over the public display of differences between senior ministers on various issues. Since the Government was under severe attack for its inability to handle graft, a couple of over-enthusiastic ministers mooted the idea of enforcing news guidelines. One suggestion was to impose a time limit on advertisements and mass agitations. A legislation to prevent cross-ownership of various news platforms was also suggested. While there was no formal decision on the formation of an Empowered Group of Ministers, a minister immediately sounded out friendly Opposition leaders. The move to muzzle the media through a regulatory authority were made known to select journalists and BJP leaders; when the news broke, the embarrassed Government beat a hasty retreat. It has also come to the PMO’s notice that a couple of ministers were spotted lunching with Opposition leaders in the south Indian restaurant of a five-star hotel soon after, or on the eve, of Cabinet meetings. They run key ministries, which decide the fate of mega projects. Premature leakages of the Government’s move have given opponents a political advantage. Outsiders know the details of the agenda even before it reaches the Cabinet, as well as of Cabinet notes. The PMO is now evolving ways and means to plug these leaks. To begin with, the Cabinet Secretary will be directed to ensure that those ministers who aren’t entitled to attend a full-fledged Cabinet meeting don’t stay on after their item on the agenda is dealt with. As per rule, all Cabinet ministers are expected to leave their agenda papers on the table after the meeting is over. But many carry them back. The Cabinet Secretary will now keep a count of numbered copies. In addition, the Prime Minister himself will monitor all media coverage on Cabinet proceedings to spot habitual leakers. Since some of them claim proximity to 10 Janpath, Manmohan will have to walk the extra mile to either contain them or get rid of them.

No Urgency for Core Group Meet

Though Congress President Sonia Gandhi is back after her successful surgery, she didn’t attend the party’s core group meeting held last week. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to hold it at his residence the day after terror struck the Delhi High Court, instead of calling an emergency sitting on last Wednesday’s terror attacks. Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and political adviser to the Congress President, Ahmed Patel, attended. Besides discussing the terror attack, the group also confabulated on the confrontation between the BJP and the UPA over the appointment of a Lokayukta in Gujarat. But some of the Congress leaders are surprised over the delay on the Prime Minister’s part to convene a meeting on terror soon after his arrival from Dhaka on September 7. He had landed in New Delhi by early evening, and various officials in the Home Ministry, Cabinet Secretary and intelligence agencies were kept waiting for a possible review meeting. But the call never came. However, the home minister had briefed the Prime Minister when Manmohan was still in Bangladesh.

Teesta Fiasco Endangers NSA

The relationship between the Prime Minister and a chief minister is a sensitive one. It has now acquired much more importance in view of coalition compulsions. Chief ministers are becoming more powerful than the Prime Minister. The recent fiasco over the Teesta water allocation to Bangladesh has exposed the disconnect between the PMO and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had disclosed that Banerjee was fully involved in finalising the agreement. On the other hand, Didi made it clear that the final draft was at variance with what was approved by her. Then who is responsible for the embarrassing miscommunication? National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon is the usual suspect. He had met Banerjee a couple of times to discuss the finer points of the agreement. Now, both the Congress and Trinamool leaders feel that Menon exceeded his brief and was pushing his own agenda. Since Menon is the Prime Minister’s most trusted adviser, he has often been found wanting in striking a balance between political compulsions and diplomatic concessions. He has been blamed for ignoring national and state elements while drafting statements and agreements. Earlier, for the Sharm el-Sheikh fiasco—the joint Indo-Pak statement on delinking terror from dialogue and Baluchistan—he had to be reprimanded for including a few phrases which were against the spirit of the dialogue. Recently, his overt eagerness for a dialogue with Pakistan hasn’t been taken kindly by the Congress leadership. Not surprisingly, the voices seeking his resignation are getting louder.

More Politics Please, It’s the PMO

With National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon on a sticky wicket, the PMO is under heavy pressure to re-examine the role of his office. Congress leaders are peeved with the dominance of officers drawn from the Indian Foreign Service in the PMO. According to insiders, Menon wasn’t alone in drafting the aborted Teesta water agreement with Bangladesh. Another IFS officer who claims expertise over geographical history aided him. Now the party wants people with political grounding to advise the Prime Minister. Manmohan has already appointed Pulok Chatterjee, a Gandhi loyalist, as his principal secretary, replacing TKA Nair who has been elevated to adviser. Chatterjee is likely to join on October 4. Contrary to popular perception that Chatterjee stayed back in New York to look after the Congress president, he was holidaying in another country and planning the wedding of his daughter before he plunges into his new high-voltage job. But he is unlikely to have the full run of the PMO his predecessor enjoyed. Manmohan has decided that Nair, a Singh loyalist, will reign supreme over a Gandhi loyalist.

Race Course Road/ The Sunday Standard/July 03, 2011

Manmohan needs to rein in his babus

A leader’s success depends on the company he or she keeps. Or avoids. The ominous disconnect between 7 Race Course Road (the PM’s official residence) and South Block (the PM’s office) was revealed last week during l’affaire Bangladesh. Within 12 hours of its Web release, the PMO was forced to withdraw some frank statements Manmohan Singh had made to Indian editors on our troubled relationship with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The journalists realised the sensitivity of his remarks and kept them out of their reports. But South Block mandarins, including National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon, goofed up royally. PMO sources say five senior officials cleared it; it was assumed the draft had Menon’s approval. Once in cyberspace, all hell broke loose in Dhaka, forcing an embarrassed PMO to hastily delete controversial references. Earlier, in July 2009, the foreign office released the confidential Sharm el-Sheikh agreement on terrorism, courtesy Menon, then foreign secretary. It is not merely his Cabinet that the prime minister needs to reform and restructure. He needs to review the quality of babus around him. Their snafus can’t be explained away as coincidental misinterpretations. If Manmohan meant to stop A Raja’s dubious activities, his aides should’ve fulfilled his wishes. If the prime minister wanted to delink Kashmir and Afghanistan, his policy experts shouldn’t have done a Sharm el-Sheikh. If Manmohan intended to be sensitive on Bangladesh, his diplomats should have warned him about its undiplomatic consequences. His advisers seem to be pursuing their own agenda at the cost of his image. Unless 7 Race Course Road takes charge of South Block, the institution of the prime minister may be irretrievably eroded and damaged.

No Dropdown Menu, No Reshuffle

After two rounds of confabulation between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the Cabinet reshuffle has been put off. It has more to do with the ministers to be dropped than the new faces to be inducted. Manmohan’s enigmatic smile revealed his compulsions. Constitutionally, it is the prime minister’s prerogative to choose his Cabinet. In a Congress-led coalition government—unless the Prime Minister is a Gandhi—the Congress High Command and regional party bosses choose. To assert his position, Manmohan has conducted a sweeping reshuffle, involving top ministries like finance, home, defence, external affairs and human resource development. Barring External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, none of the above owe their berths to Manmohan. Home Minister P Chidambaram has indicated he would be happy to vacate North Block. Since the economy is in deep trouble, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee wants out. Only Krishna wants to stay on, despite his below-average performance and advanced age. Manmohan and Sonia had agreed on discarding some tottering ministers and non-performers, but on the top five ministers there was no consensus. There was talk about bringing back Shivraj Patil, currently Punjab governor, as defence minister and making A K Antony home minister. Meanwhile, the DMK and TMC insisted on their full quota of three ministers. Earlier, Mamata Banerjee was the only Cabinet-rank minister from the TMC. If babus who possess the best listening devices are to be believed, the real reason behind the delay is the prime minister’s inability to find Krishna’s replacement. The PMO doesn’t approve of a foreign minister with a mind of his own since traditionally the prime minister controls foreign policy.

The Great Railway Bazaar

Will the Trinamool Congress lose the Railways portfolio? Since Manmohan Singh’s new mantra is fast-tracking infrastructure projects, he seems determined to hand over Railways to a Congress minister. The ministry had almost gone into an administrative coma in the past two years. Last week, Manmohan overruled the railway ministry’s recommendation on the new Railway Board chairman. The TMC was in favour of Sanjiv Handa but the prime minister chose Vinay Mittal. Such was the case with the Member (Traffic) as well. The TMC wants to retain Railways because over 40 senior railway officials are deputed to the chief minister’s office in Kolkata. Mamata had started many rail projects in West Bengal. Though she missed 80 per cent of Cabinet meetings and spent only one out of seven days in Rail Bhavan, she milked the ministry to her advantage. If the TMC loses the portfolio, not only would Mamata’s officers come under scrutiny, some West Bengal rail projects may be slowed down or derailed. With 19 Lok Sabha members and Pranab Mukherjee on her side, Mamata may offset the coalition advantage Manmohan has acquired because of the demoralisation in the DMK.

Krishna Has Centre Court Vacation

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna loves England and Wimbledon. He knows how to mix pleasure with work. Even at 80, he doesn’t miss a single opportunity to schmooze with desi and foreign glitterati and chatterati while watching tennis. Last week, he spent a few hours doing official work in London, but the rest of his stay was spent at Wimbledon. He spends most of his time globetrotting, and visits India only when political or administrative compulsions force him to. He keeps all Indian ambassadors on their toes; they have to ensure that he gets the maximum attention and first class hospitality when he is abroad. They also have to make sure that Krishna restricts himself to the written official brief since he has a habit of deviating substantially from what he is expected to speak. According to diplomatic sources, Krishna is living it up overseas.

POWER & POLITICS / Mail Today, July 27, 2009

PARLIAMENT has never been known to be a hotbed of black humour but after the shame of Sharm- el- Sheikh, a lot of it originates there. In the last tumultuous week when even Congressmen were seen ready to go for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s jugular, I ran into some ministers in that circular edifice and they were debating amongst themselves about the level of trust they could have in the mandarins assigned to their ministries.

After Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon’s confession that the fiasco in the Egyptian resort was nothing more than a case of “ bad drafting”, ministers are becoming, and justifiably so, quite wary of bureaucrats.

One mantriji , fortunate enough to have been to the best of colleges in the world, told me he pitied several of his colleagues who have just a fleeting acquaintance with the English language and could fall victim to bureaucratic machinations.

Never in the past has a prime minister read and endorsed a statement that would later come to haunt him so much. Having passed the statement, Manmohan ideally should own responsibility. Not since the IAS and the IFS replaced the old ICS after Independence have our “ world class officers” put the country in such an embarrassing position before a worldwide audience. Anywhere else, including the tinpot dictatorships masquerading as democracies in our neighbourhood, such “ wordsmiths” would have been sacked. But in our India that is Bharat, they carry on unscathed.

I only hope that it is one- off. Because these are times when India is increasingly dealing with the outside world and bilateral and multilateral joint statements are a weekly occurrence. It therefore would not be out of place to ask: are our “ draftsmen” up to it? The errors are not in their language — not when men of eminence such as TKA Nair, MK Narayanan, Shiv Shankar Menon and others are involved — but their understanding of the nuances. Time was when ministers and bureaucrats gave press interviews and then went into denial mode to say they were misquoted. I thought the advent of TV channels would make things slightly more difficult for them, but I was wrong.

Because when caught on tape in an awkward situation, they blame TV channels for doctoring tapes and quoting them out of context. But this is the first time I have found officialdom trying to disown a joint statement by simply saying “ that is not what we meant, it was something else”. What next? Nobody really knows to what extent babudom will go to cover up their follies but a minister friend has a solution. I find it a very practical one, considering that two weeks after Shame el Sheikh, they have not Menon: In dock been able to identify the culprit behind the bad drafting. It is my friend’s contention that in future, all agreements be brought under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, so that when things go wrong, as they did in Egypt, accountability is immediately established. As in Bollywood movies where the credit- titles are scrolled at the end, all bilateral and multilateral statements that India signs should have similar credits showing who drafted the statement, who vetted it, read it and passed it. These should be uploaded to the ministry’s website.
That will show who is culpable. After that, there is no escaping.