India's Nationalist President..... Power & Politics/ The Sunday Standard/ June 07, 2015

India's Nationalist President Conquers the World by Waging Peace and Talking Business

First, it was Bangladesh. Then Mauritius, Belgium and Turkey, followed by Vietnam, Norway, Finland, Bhutan and Russia. The latest were Sweden and Belarus. The world is his oyster, but for President Pranab Mukherjee, India is the banquet. Those in the know at Rashtrapati Bhavan will tell you President Mukherjee used to hate travelling abroad. He specifically disliked ceremonial visits, because he believed the role of the President of India, especially during foreign visits, should be in the national interest—proactive and dialogue-driven, while keeping the country’s geopolitical and economic priorities in mind. Hence, he used to joke that he hated packing and unpacking for long sojourns overseas. All that changed when he realised that India needed more than a ceremonial head of state, who merely raised toasts at sumptuous banquets, made pretty speeches at official dinners and gave perfect photo-ops at national monuments. The President was a national ambassador and unifier while abroad, and not a glorified tourist.

This was quite evident during Mukherjee’s four-day visit to Sweden and Belarus last week. The hectic pace of the air miles covered, treaties signed, negotiations concluded and speeches delivered belied his age, but set new benchmarks for the power of connectivity and mutually beneficial engagements with his hosts. Since Indian presidents are not conventionally expected to travel to superpower nations such as the US, Japan, Germany, the UK and others, Mukherjee has always chosen to visit those nations, which can play an important role in India’s strategic and trade relations. Last week was his 10th visit abroad since he took over as India’s 13th President in July 2012. As he was the first Indian President to travel to both countries, he fixed his itinerary and meetings in such a way that all important segments like politics, diplomacy, business, culture and academics were addressed. During the 25 meetings and official functions the President attended, his interactions were not of a random nature, but well thought through. He adopted a theme suited to every occasion and audience. Yet the running theme was synergy between Indian nationalism and local icons, business leaders, the Indian Diaspora, academics and foreign leaders. Mukherjee used each and every platform to convey to his audience the fact that engaging with a resurgent India would fetch mutual rewards. He addressed business forums, visited important universities and held parleys with even the opposition leaders of the countries. Normally it is the Prime Minister or the head of the government who gets a standing ovation from the people, since it is in the scepter in his hand that real power resides. With President Mukherjee, it was a different story.

Rarely has a President from India got such a massive applause from audiences abroad—not only from the NRIs in Sweden and Belarus but also from the local academic and cultural elite. For example, when the Indian Ambassador to Sweden, Ms Banashri Bose Harrison, sent out an invitation to NRIs and other local dignitaries for a reception in honour of the President, the response was unprecedented. All the attendees rose to hail the President after he finished his speech. They walked to the dais in a row to be photographed with him. The highlight of the function was his 20-minute extempore speech, the kind of which an Indian President has rarely delivered. His advice to the audience was to connect with local culture and become the unofficial ambassadors of India’s rich heritage while remaining attentive to local laws. Since Mukherjee was one of India’s senior-most politicians before he moved to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, he knew the power of focused delivery and the historical grasp to invoke India’s golden past and remind the people of both countries about the relevance of national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore. The past and the present segued seamlessly as he also informed his hosts about the new environment of growth and confidence, which prevails in India under the new dispensation. Mukherjee used his visit to Sweden’s Uppasala University to speak on the ‘Relevance of Tagore and Gandhi in World Peace’ to reiterate India’s commitment to plurality and coexistence. He said, “Tagore’s views on ‘nationalism’ reveal his distaste for parochialism, racial divide and social stratification. He firmly believed that world peace could never be achieved until big and powerful nations curbed their desire for territorial expansion and control over smaller nations.” According to the poet, the Orient and the Occident must meet on a common ground on terms of equal fellowship: “where knowledge flows in two streams—from the East and from the West.” However, as usual, the unity of cultures was the Presidential visit’s leitmotif. Mukherjee recollected the outstanding work done by Dag Hammarskjöld, the great Swedish leader and the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. 

In Belarus, too, respect and popularity formed the subtext of Mukherjee’s speeches. At a prominent university,  he said, “The intellectual calibre of the university and its alumni is reflected in the fact that it contributes as many as three out of every four researchers to the Belarus Academy of Sciences. Your pursuit of scientific knowledge and advanced research places this university at the centre of Belarus’ national developmental programmes.” Addressing the Indo-Belarus Business Council, Mukherjee said, “As you are aware, India is emerging as one of the largest economies in the world and one of the fastest-growing emerging markets with an average annual growth rate of more than 7 per cent over the past decade. There are positive signals that suggest that we may be moving to an even higher growth path.” He added, “Our bilateral trade turnover is modest and way below its real potential. I am, however, optimistic. My interactions with President Lukashenko make me hopeful that we can increase our trade to a level of $1 billion by the year 2020. I am confident that this level is achievable if we expand the range of items in our trade basket, increase the share of high technology and value-added products and enhance exchanges and cooperation in the services sector, such as healthcare, IT, financial services, transport and logistics.” He invited Swedes to invest in India. The astute political instinct latent in Mukherjee understood that ambience also plays an important role in building a relationship. In Stockholm, he accepted King Carl XVI Gustaf’s invitation for a boat ride and to absorb the views of Swedish business leaders. For over an hour, the President heard out over a dozen of them regarding their issues with India.

With the rich experience of having governed the defence, economic and diplomatic establishment of India, Mukherjee has proved himself to be Modi’s best companion in India’s quest to become a global super power. The President left many things unsaid when he quoted Tagore to his audience at Uppasala University, “It was Buddha who conquered the world, not Alexander.” Mukherjee’s conquest of the world in India’s interests holds the subtle undertone of waging peace and connecting nations.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

The Raisina Rigmarole is Not in your interest/ Sunday Standard/May 06, 2012

POWER & POLITICS

Be Warned, Pranabda, The Raisina Rigmarole is Not in Your Interest

Dear Pranabda,

I have known you for 37 years. I have been a witness to your rise, fall, and rise. During the Emergency, you were the most effective Minister of State for Finance. You were one of the few trusted ministers on whom Sanjay Gandhi depended on for sane advice. Since then, you have traversed many politically verdant valleys and humungous hills. The latest journey to Raisina Hill being proposed for you is much more arduous, tortuous and full of complex twists and turns. From your North Block office, it is just walking distance. You have been there many times and are deeply aware of what transpires and conspires inside. As a man of many seasons and a master of complex politics, you will seriously ponder over the implications of embarking upon this short sunset walk. You may have noticed that it is not just your own party, which is talking about your suitability to occupy India’s highest constitutional post. Some of your jealous colleagues have also joined the chorus. You are eminently more qualified than any other surviving politician for the post. But your party never thought even once that you were, perhaps, the most acceptable and experienced political leader to become the prime minister when it chose Manmohan Singh who had worked under you in various capacities. In 1984, Giani Zail Singh— then the president and one of your closest friends—and the Congress leadership preferred Rajiv Gandhi to you for obvious reasons. That is history now, and you would like to forget some of its dark chapters.

For the past eight years, you have been the de facto prime minister without enjoying the security of the elite Special Protection Group. It is precisely thanks to your experienced fingers being in every political pie that most parties feel you could be the consensus candidate for president. But as you are well aware, politics today is a game of conspiracies. The opposition parties want you to move out of North Block because:

• They want this paralysed government to go into coma. Even the BJP, which has opposed the idea of a Congressman becoming the President, is quietly willing to let you move into Rashtrapati Bhavan. With you out of politics, the UPA will be left with no leader who can deal with internal and external pressures. There is none in the Congress who can chair over 50 Group of Ministers meetings and also deal with the 45 opposition parties in Parliament.

• Even Mamata Banerjee and Mulayam Singh Yadav would be happy to see you out of the finance ministry because they will find your successor much more amenable. All Opposition chief ministers are asking for relief packages. But your hands are tied. You have been forced to dole out humungous amounts for only Congress-sponsored schemes. Once you are moved out, they may be able to dictate their terms in return for their support.

• All O pposition leaders are aware that it is you who silences recalcitrant ministers at Cabinet meetings because the prime minister prefers maunvrat. Once you are absent, Cabinet meetings will be free-for-all events and will reflect the further erosion of governance.

• The Opposition is also convinced that as president, you would allow the misuse of the Central government to destabilise unfriendly state governments. They feel none of the governors have the ability to convert their Raj Bhavans into headquarters of the ruling party at the Centre.

• Above all, the Opposition is confident that you may not buckle under pressure while deciding the prime minister in 2014, if no party gets an absolute majority. If you are still nursing your wounds caused by the denial of the prime ministership, you will not be over-enthusiastic in anointing a Gandhi as the prime minister.

• You disarm the Opposition in Parliament with your barbs, arguments, anger and even scolding to ensure that some business is conducted. Even at 77, you work for over 17 hours a day, giving a complex to your younger and ambitious colleagues. You are the leader of the House in the Lok Sabha. Your only replacement could be Sonia Gandhi, but she wouldn’t like to be bogged down with cumbersome and dirty legislative responsibilities.

• You are the only politician who knows parliamentary procedures, has read the Constitution and is fully aware of legislative history. Your absence from Parliament would be the Congress’s loss but the Opposition’s gain.

• A few of your colleagues aspiring to your post also want to prove that Pranabda, after all, is power-hungry too; he doesn’t mind being a rubber stamp in the Rashrapati Bhavan.

• Your party wants you to be kicked upstairs so that they can pass on the buck for the economic crisis to you and your fiscal and monetary policies. They want you to be good political riddance.

I urge you to keep your eyes open, mouth shut and ears closer to the walls. You are not in a win-win situation. If you are finally chosen, you will just be a prisoner of the Constitution, comfortably housed in a luxurious palace built by the British. If you are denied the presidency, it will erode your image as an erudite, credible and efficient politician. You have to find out whether it is an enemy or a friend who has floated your name for Raisina Hill.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

Manmohan Needs to Get his Economics Right/The Sunday Standard/Dec. 04, 2011

POWER & POLITICS
Manmohan Needs to Get His Economics Right, Pranab His Politics

While politicians make promises, economists make predictions. For the former, promises are meant to be forgotten. Economists change their predictions and blame others for getting it wrong. For the past few months, our economist-turned-politician Prime Minister has been changing his economic forecasts too often and getting it wrong most of the time. On the other hand, our politician-turned-economist Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is conveniently forgetting his promises to reverse the inflationary trend and tame the rising fiscal deficit. Both have little in common. But they never give up and continue to build castles in sand.

After sticking to their rosy India growth story for the past few months, reality seems to have dawned suddenly. Last week, Pranabda admitted there is something rotten in the state of Indian economy. His most painful confession was that India’s GDP wouldn’t grow beyond 7.5 per cent, as against his earlier prediction of 9 per cent. Only a few months ago, both the Prime Minister and the finance minister have been telling the nation that the country is poised for massive growth, in spite of global recession. During the last Budget Session of the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister announced to the thumping of the tables by the treasury benches, that India would achieve at least 9 per cent growth. Later on, during his recent visit to Kolkata, he stuck to his prediction. “Since we have already achieved about 8.2 per cent in the 11th plan period, it may seem that a transition to 9 per cent growth is not difficult,” Manmohan said during his speech at the golden jubilee of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Now we are hearing a different tune. Addressing a meeting last week in New Delhi, Mukherjee said, “We can not expect we can reach a high growth rate of 9 per cent overnight. We will to live with relatively moderate growth rate this year, and next year we may try to improve it higher.” He went on to caution that “in the short and the medium-term, we will have to emphasise on the strategy of domestic demand-driven growth”.

For the first time, the fact that Indian economy was being driven by external demand became official. As the rest of the world heads towards economic disaster, the weak foundations of our domestic economic policies stand exposed. In a country like India, where public borrowing accounts for over 70 per cent of the GDP—the highest among BRIC countries—expecting domestic demand to ignite economic recovery is highly unwise. Pranab has conveniently forgotten that his Government’s reform menu has proved conventional economic theory wrong. Contrary to accepted models of development, a developing and predominantly rural economy like India is highly dependent on services for generating every second rupee of its income. Over 55 per cent of India’s GDP comes from the services sector, which provides only 34 per cent employment. On the other hand, every second job is still provided by the traditional agriculture sector that accounts for only 14 per cent of the GDP.

Frankly, all the economic reforms so far are meant to give income, power and glamour to those who know how to use a mouse, drive high-end automobiles or fly in chartered aircraft. For the past two decades, mouse-driven growth has created tiny islands of prosperity surrounded by a massive sea of poverty and unemployment. The Government’s fiscal and the monetary policies are aimed at making the rich richer and the poor, poorer. With ostentatious upper middle class demand peaking, it is only the rise of the poor and the middle class that can save the sinking manufacturing sector. No amount of social funding like MGNREGA or writing off farmers’ loans can generate a permanent demand for goods and services. Government schemes should lead to creating permanent, productive assets and not convert a healthy workforce into beggars heavily dependent on Government doles. An ideal combination of good economics and better politics would mean pruning the size of a bloated bureaucracy and political establishment, dismantling the pro-corporate official mindset and launching massive labour-intensive development projects. If the Government’s only mandate is to facilitate highly lucrative nuclear energy commerce and FDI in retail trade in India, the economy is bound to take a plunge in the long run. If only the leadership had spent half the time in resolving intra-state issues on infrastructure development than what it has spent on managing the agitating poor in Koondakulam, the economy would have grown by that mythical number of 9 per cent. The time has come for the economist Prime Minister to revert to practical economics, and a political Finance Minister to prudent politics. Forgotten promises and wrong predictions only spell disaster in the long run.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com

POWER & POLITICS/ The Sunday Standard, October 2, 2011

MANMOHAN'S WOUNDED CABINET HAS GONE BEYOND THE POINT OF RECOVERY

Classical liberalist Earnest Benn once said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” It aptly describes the current state of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government. His singular success in the past few months has been looking for trouble, making an incorrect diagnosis and worse, opting for the wrong remedy. Last week, when he forced Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to distance himself from a mischievously timed but wisely worded note, the Prime Minister added yet another minister to the long list of senior colleagues who have lost their credibility. As one wicked leak after another tumbled out of the closets of power, Manmohan and his A-Team couldn’t find a mechanism to plug or prevent them from damaging the Government’s image. Instead of burying their personal or ideological differences and facing all attacks in a united fashion, the ministers resorted to the time-tested technique of passing the buck. But since so many bucks were moving around, every one of them stopped at the desk of one minister or the other.

Home Minister P Chidambaram, and Mukherjee have been the most productive and effective ministers of the UPA government. Both are members of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs which takes all crucial political and administrative decisions. Last week, they lost most of their hard-earned reputations. Corporates hastily distanced themselves. Political followers of the ministers were feeling let down. It is perhaps for the first time that a government had to defend its own home minister in court. For over a week, Manmohan chose the seemingly best option of not taking a decision, expecting the issue would become irrelevant with time. It proved disastrous. While Chidambaram’s personal integrity was being questioned, so was the motive behind the Finmin note. When the Prime Minister showed no hurry in resolving the crisis, it was left to Sonia Gandhi to crack the whip and direct the duelling duo to sort things out or face the consequences. She also conveyed to Manmohan in unequivocal terms that the mess in the Government has to be managed immediately. Within hours, they all fell in line. Since it was wholly a politico-legal issue, Manmohan deputed Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Communication Minister Kapil Sibal to help Mukherjee find a face-saving device. The Three Wise Men met in the PMO premises and drafted a statement that brought truce. But this only hastened the erosion of their credibility.

Mukherjee and Chidambaram are not the only ones who have suffered a plausibility crisis. The first casualty was Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. When anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare made fun of Pawar’s membership of the GoM dealing with black money and corruption, he instantly resigned. Instead of backing his efficient colleague, the Prime Minister accepted his resignation, signalling the victory of Civil Society and the fall of a Titan. A few weeks later, the Minister of Heavy Industries Praful Patel was accused of destroying Air India and promoting private airlines. Earlier, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna was the object of ridicule for defending the Sharm el-Sheikh fiasco, pleading for favourable treatment for Pakistan. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, he read the wrong speech at an international forum. A few months later, a question mark was raised on Sibal’s credibility when he famously commented on a no-loss in the 2G scam. Minister of Science and Technology Vilasrao Deshmukh and Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde were linked to the Adarsh Society scam. More recently, all political parties in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have stopped trusting Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for failing to deliver on the creation of a separate Telangana and fighting for the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Various sections of society are losing confidence in the UPA government because it is reneging on its promises. Industry is upset because the Cabinet succumbed to a junior minister’s pressure and delayed the new manufacturing policy that was drafted after consulting all stakeholders. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh authored a Land Acquisition Bill which, if passed, will make it almost impossible for any new industry to come up in the private sector. Powerful ministers in the presence of the Prime Minister foiled Sports Minister Ajay Maken, who is now roaming around like a wounded tiger after his attempt to rid the sports bodies of the sports mafia failed. The state of the UPA Cabinet is exactly similar to that of the Indian cricket team. All top players, including the captain, are either hurt or have lost their playing skills. Now India is led by an under-performing political skipper who leads a group of wounded colleagues. Team Manmohan is unlikely to recover because their injuries are caused mainly by their leader’s inability to provide the needed safety cover.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com

Power & Politics / The Sunday Standard /September 25, 2011

Between the Lines Wicked Leaks Saga is Collective Irresponsibility

If one goes by the antics of our politicians during the past few months, it seems Indian politics will soon be made compulsory reading in social science studies in all universities. It is a fascinating study in the Art of Impossibilities. Those who wrote the Indian Constitution laid down the principle of collective responsibility for all members of the Union Cabinet, including the Prime Minister. But now what we are witnessing is a new democratic mantra of collective irresponsibility: no one is held accountable and punished. Not a day passes without a minister in the UPA government blaming another one for inane wrong doings or committing administrative improprieties. Some of them even accuse their colleagues of taking decisions which could lead to criminal culpability. The latest round of note-leaking involving Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram on the highly sensitive 2G Scam reflects the growing pass-the-buck tendency among even those who are considered to be the UPA government’s most productive assets. Both had earlier been in the news for the wrong reasons. While Pranabda suspected that he and his trusted aides were under electronic surveillance, Chidambaram was hurt by unsubstantiated insinuations made against him. But there seems to be some method behind this so-called Cold War between the two giants who owe their political rise to two generations of Gandhis. Mukherjee was discovered and promoted by Indira Gandhi and he became the most powerful Minister of State for Finance ever, during the Emergency. Chidambaram, a wealthy and well-spoken Chettiar advocate from Tamil Nadu, was patronised by Rajiv Gandhi. Coincidentally, there is also a similarity between them. Both left the Congress party briefly to join or promote their own regional parties. But the reasons were different. Mukherjee left because Rajiv ignored him. Chidambaram joined the Tamil Manila Congress only after Prime Minister Narasimha Rao implicated him in a stock scam. While Mukherjee has always seen himself a strong contender for prime ministership, Chidambaram does not nurture such an ambition. In fact, there was strong speculation about Mukherjee making a strong pitch for the top job soon after Indira Gandhi’s tragic assassination, which was nipped in the bud by the then President Giani Zail Singh who swore in Rajiv without the formality of even a formal Congress Parliamentary party meeting.

Political observers are now trying to find the genesis of the undeclared war between the two leviathans, which has led to a dangerous erosion of the Government’s authority. What baffles the Congress party veterans is the finance minister’s use of petty and middle-level officials to fight his proxy war. Even in the chewing gum controversy, it was a coterie of junior finance ministry officials that implanted a fear psychosis in Pranabda’s mind. He first hired a private detective agency to investigate and later wrote to the Prime Minister, instead of taking his colleague Chidambaram into confidence. The Prime Minister worsened the situation by asking the Intelligence Bureau to give its report directly to the PMO, and not to the home minister. It was obvious that even the Chief Executive of the country wasn’t aware of the concept of collective responsibility. At that time, Pranabda described the entire bugging episode as a non-event and made fun of the media.

Things haven’t changed. A lowly factotum writes a verbose note on 2G policy, making indirect comments about former finance minister Chidambaram’s role in the scandal and sends it to Pranabda through proper channels, for his eyes only. It is then dispatched to another joint secretary in the PMO. Finally it finds its way to the media through an RTI activist. Never before in the history of Independent India have Union ministers sought a certificate of good conduct through widely leaked official correspondence on controversial issues. Earlier, it was work done that spoke about the performance of each. But now, written words against each other differentiate the bad from the worse. Pranabda and Chidambaram aren’t the only ones to be caught in the Leakstorm. Others like Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister of State for Industries Ashwani Kumar, Telecommunications and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai, Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily as well as senior law officers of the Government have been in the headlines for writing or speaking against each other, or for making controversial statements. Unfortunately, the art of governance has taken such an ugly turn that it is the posture of denial than the grace of owning up a mistake that has become the parameter of permanent political success.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com