Panchayati Raj/Power&Politics/Mail Today-June 23,2008

WHEN IS more less merrier? When it involves Mani Shankar Aiyer. The ebullient Panchayati Raj Minister has already lost the coveted Sports and Youth Affairs portfolio for speaking his mind about the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, atrait which has earned him enough enemies. They rejoiced at what was perceived as his downgrading, but are obviously dismayed over his appointment to the power Congress Election Committee headed by AK Antony, aclear indication that at 10 Janpath, Mani still matters. So efforts are on to cut him to size. The latest is the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC). It was set up in 2005, after agap of 40 years with Congress General Secretary Veerappa Moily as its head to look into, among other things, strengthening the financial management system. Its reports are submitted in phases and one more will soon be handed to the government. One of the recommendations pertains to cutting down the number of government departments from 400 to 395 or thereabouts. Among the causalities could be the Department for the Development of North East Region (DONER), and Mani is the minister. Mani says the ARC did not consult him even once while coming to its conclusions while those close to him accuse ARC Chief of backstabbing. Moily is perfectly placed to do that. His office in Vigyan Bhavan, that shunting yard for countless commissions and useless ministries, is right behind Mani’s.

Power & Politics/Mail Today-June 23,2008

FOR ALL the drama, intrigue and tension, Manmohan Singh’s tough posturing over the weekend may have been just one big yarn. They may have buried the deal already. What else explains the shunting in the recent past of several key officers associated with the deal from the outset? SJayashankar, our High Commissioner in Singapore who had the delicate task of convincing the Indian stand to the 45- member Nuclear Suppliers Group has been replaced, Raminder Singh Jassal, our No 2 man in Washington and another key member of the Nuke India Team has been moved to Turkey while the Big Dad of them all, former Foreign Secretary and Manmohan’s Special Envoy on the N- deal Shyam Saran now seems preoccupied with his other job as the Special Envoy on climate change.

Minimum PM /Power & Politics/ Mail Today-June 23,2008

Sometime in August last, Manmohan Singh made one of the most ill- timed, ill- advised statements he has ever made as Prime Minister. “If they (the Left) want to withdraw support, so be it” he said in arare interview to a Kolkata newspaper. Since then, the UPA government has been living on daily wages. Manmohan considers the nuclear deal critical to his governance paradigm. With his economy managers unable to contain inflation, the Left obstructing his reforms agenda and his ministerial team lacking in substance, the deal, he hoped, would at least ensure his place in history. But he sized up Prakash Karat wrong. Those who have dealt with Karat will tell you that compromises don’t come naturally to him, draw him out for aduel and Karat transforms into aformidable fighter. In an earlier column, Ihad written about what has now become regular feature in this regime –the meeting of the UPA- Left coordination committee on the nuke deal. The two sides get together every now and then and decide to do nothing more than meet again in afew month’s time. Last Wednesday, they were to meet for the ninth time but there were afew twists, so they decided to meet aweek later. But ominously, by late evening, TV channels reported that Manmohan had threatened to quit if the deal, whose deadline is staring his government in the face, is not done. Success has many fathers and failure none. The deal is as good as dead and the Congress Party, instead of rallying around the good doctor is busy preparing a charge- sheet against him for bringing the party to such apass in an election year. But if blame were to be apportioned, the party leadership should split it in equal measure. Aseries of flaws accompanied what is perhaps the most contentious bilateral agreement India has ever signed. The Congress leadership failed to build apolitical consensus around the deal. The media hype and active involvement of corporate houses and US lobbyists in pursuing the deal put so much pressure on the political system, it hardened opposition to it. Some Opposition leaders were shocked to hear from American interlocutors who came to India to convince them about the deal that the Congress party had assured them of support of a majority of the political parties while the reality is they did not even try. It could have activated senior party to reach out to the NDA to build apolitical consensus on the matter which would have isolated the Left, but didn’t. The managers bungled. There is amoral to this story. Ahead of government can lead from the front only if he has the political mandate and the authority that goes with it. Manmohan didn’t have either, yet did what he thought was right. He made promises but couldn’t deliver. In politics, you seldom get asecond chance. The weekend saw his miseries pile up. South Block keeps mum on anews report which says India has been sitting on massive reserves of uranium enough to feed our energy requirements for 40 years. It’s astory that knocks the bottom out of Manmohan’s case that the country needs foreign uranium for energy. Worse, with inflation at 11+, a13- year high, the credibility of the economist in Manmohan stands eroded. And so the beginning of the end. Minimum Karat: Formidable

ALL FLIGHTS CANCELLED/Power & Politics/Mail Today-June 16,2008

BY ASKING his ministers and senior bureaucrats to cut down on foreign junkets, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is following aproud tradition of politicians, even wellmeaning ones like him, becoming subjects of jokes, if not objects of ridicule. The PMO circular saw ministers like Ambika Soni, Renuka Chowdhury, Murli Deora, Mani Shanker Aiyar canceling their tours which were probably planned when the price of crude was under US$ 100 abarrel and inflation was yet to touch five per cent. Some others could not entirely resist the travel bug and so hopped to destinations closer home than to distant shores. But the frequent flyer in Kamal Nath continued undeterred. The Commerce Minister took off for the US, presumably to prepare for the next WTO meeting which will probably be in Doha, Qatar. Not all of them were so brazen. One minister, kept his tongue firmly in his cheek while drafting aletter to Manmohan. It read thus: “Dear Manmohan Singhji, in deference to your austerity drive, Ihope everyone in the Cabinet will take your advice and avoid unnecessary expenditure. Ihave decided not to travel abroad for official or personal purposes and Ihope my move helps in containing inflation". He has not dispatched the letter so far, but will do so if inflation keeps shooting up and reaches 10 per cent, which is not far away.