Mr Home Minister, please...Power & Politics/The Sunday Standard/March 03, 2013

Mr Home Minister, please shun your inferiority complex and rise to the occasion

If the survival of a leader is linked with servility and not substance, he or she is bound to ignore the dignity of the office held. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is a classic case of a politician who slips at every step he takes, yet gets up and moves on with his back held straight. For him, his crass words don’t matter. His earthy wisdom does. Even after committing verbal hara-kiri, Shinde remains the darling of his leadership. But he is also the target of the ruling establishment, which finds him an unacceptable claimant to the throne in the event of the UPA coming to power again in 2014. 

For the past few weeks, the home minister has given enough fodder to both his promoters and detractors to train their guns on him. On every sensitive issue—ranging from the shameful gangrape in Delhi to naming the minor rape victims of Bhandara—Shinde has displayed his unsuitability to occupy the post of the home minister of India. Though he has been only reading out the statement written or provided by his ministry officials, the buck ultimately stops with him for his inability to spot the red signals and saboteurs within his own system. Ever since he took over as home minister, Shinde has let the impression grow that he isn’t the master of his ministry. His predecessor, P Chidambaram, was considered both a terror and a hard taskmaster in North Block, who arrived at work even much before his junior-most colleagues opened their desktops. Chidambaram was quite focused in his approach. He acquired powers which none of his immediate predecessors enjoyed. He made sure that the chiefs of all intel agencies briefed him on a daily basis. It was he who ensured that both the RAW chief and the national security adviser attended all his meetings, so that he could frame an appropriate response on all sensitive issues ranging from Left to Right terror, Centre-state relations and even dealing with Pakistan. But hardly anyone takes Shinde seriously because he leaves it to civil servants to run the ministry. For example, his statement on the Bhandara rape case emerged out of the inputs and reports which emanated from the district collector, eventually reaching him after passing through the hands of the state’s director general of police, home minister, and perhaps even the chief minister. It then reached the home secretary, and finally the home ministry officials drafted a statement, which was to be read out by Shinde in the House. Instead of examining each and every word, as Chidambaram would have done, Shinde simply read it out in good faith. If such a gaffe was committed during Chidambaram’s tenure, the official would have been dispatched to his home state within hours. But Shinde decided to probe the truth, which he already knew. Known more for his affable personality than being a stern home minister, Shinde hasn’t let the aura of his office alter his DNA. The joke in Mumbai used to be that when he replaced Vilasrao Deshmukh as the chief minister of Maharashtra, Bal Thackeray remarked that “one Deshmukh has gone and a Hasmukh (one who is always laughing) has taken over”.

Shinde is the second Dalit home minister of the 20 who have occupied one of the four corner rooms in both South and North Blocks, which represent the symbols of real political and financial power in Indian government. He has occupied the chair, but has failed to acquire and understand the gravitas and dignity attached to the home minister’s office. He forgot that 18 leaders who preceded him came from rich, upper caste and well-groomed families from various states. Like him, nine had also been chief ministers. Since caste and class have become the benchmarks for assessing ability and agility, a substantial number of home ministers have been from the upper castes. All the four from south India came not only from the wealthy classes but also from landed, rich communities. Six, such as Morarji Desai, Vallabh Bhai Patel, Y B Chavan, S B Chavan and Shivraj Patil, who represented western India like Shinde does, had both caste and class advantages over him. But they were never under such strict social and political scrutiny as Shinde is facing now. Barring Jagjivan Ram, almost every other political leader from Dalit or other backward communities has always faced hostile social reactions for their follies or the usage of politically incorrect statements. It wasn’t just Shinde who was under fire, but the very institution of the home minister was being questioned for erosion of credibility.

The problem with Shinde is that he suffers from a caste complex and believes that he is in office not on merit but for his unconditional loyalty to the Gandhi Parivar. Soon after taking over as home minister, he told me in television show Teekhi Baat that he would shoot anyone if ordered to do so by his leader, Sonia Gandhi. Earlier, Giani Zail Singh, another backward class home minister, had asserted in an interview given to me for India Today magazine that he wouldn’t mind sweeping the floor if asked to do so by Indira Gandhi. Zail Singh was later elevated as India’s first Sikh president.

But the Shinde episode epitomises a bigger malaise inflicting the high offices in government. While the role of the home minister has changed drastically over the last few years of the coalition era, individuals chosen by the Congress have failed to rise to the occasion. The controversies surrounding the conduct of the home minister has more to do with the caste and sycophantic political culture prevailing in the country, which are killing the institutions and symbols of authority and power.

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

Noose you can use..../Power & Politics/The Sunday Standard/February 10, 2013

Noose you can use: Shinde takes on opposition, one hanging at a time

If it is the chair that makes the individual, then Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has finally justified his elevation. By dispatching Afzal Guru to the hangman on early Saturday morning, the spirit of the former cop in him triumphed over political conviction. For the past five years, on one pretext or the other, the UPA had been dithering over the issue of sending Afzal to the gallows. With one stroke of his pen, Shinde not only disarmed his most vociferous opponent, the Bharatiya Janata Party, but also regained his lost reputation as a politician who always spoke before thinking. In retrospect, his slips of tongue while speaking at the Jaipur Chintan Shivir weren’t acts of political indiscretion. For the first time, an Indian home minister defined terrorism in terms of religious colour. He accused the RSS of organising camps to train Hindu terrorists, on which he later backtracked saying, “There is no colour to any terrorism… My thought is the same as party’s line.” But now it seems that his action of sending Guru to the gibbet speedily is a calculated attempt to acquire neutrality and legitimacy. It was only after the return of the Congress establishment from Jaipur that the home ministry moved Guru’s fatal file. Shinde also ensured that all the stakeholders were taken on board, including Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who was apprehensive about the move. With the BJP mounting pressure on the government that Shinde should apologise for his remarks or else he should be dismissed from the Cabinet, the UPA leadership was forced to bite the bullet.

Guru was an agent of the evil forces that assaulted the idea and institution of India by attacking Parliament on December 13, 2001. Had the terrorists and their plans succeeded, over half of the Union Cabinet and about 250 MPs would have been slaughtered by the bullets of the would-be assassins. It was the valiant sacrifice of seven security officers which saved the symbol of Indian democracy. Despite the due process of judicial scrutiny at the highest level, Guru had acquired the cult status of being the most powerful symbol of votebank politics, with various parties finding fault with the legal process or the intentions of the government in power. He must have been the only convict whose file for execution meandered up and down the decision route for over six years, covering two presidents, three home ministers and two chief ministers. At every juncture, questions of procedures and law and order were raised. While the government bought time to decide the time of Guru’s execution, the BJP and its allies made it their most potent weapon to attack the UPA for playing votebank politics.

But Shinde had decided to work according to his own mind. He chose his own manner and method to silence his most bitter critics. The home minister, who didn’t think twice while promising to shoot any person if ordered to do so by his political boss Sonia Gandhi, put the file rejecting Guru’s mercy petition on the super-fast track. Curiously, President Pranab Mukherjee accepted the home minister’s recommendations on January 26. Within the next couple of weeks, the file moved from Rashtrapati Bhawan to the home ministry and finally to the Lt Governor’s office in Delhi, clearing the decks for the execution of India’s most politicised terrorist.

Shinde may have been perceived as an embarrassment to the party for his soft and casual attitude, but he has been working according to plan after taking over as home minister on July 31, 2012. He understood that decisive action on terror files would make or mar his political career. As chief minister of Maharashtra, he had learnt the art of handling communally sensitive issues. Quite predictably, he decided to address the concerns of his home constituency. Within two weeks, he moved heaven and earth to get Ajmal Kasab hanged since it was on his watch that 166 Mumbaikars and foreigners were killed in one of the worst terror attacks on India. Once the deed was done, he embarked on the path of taking on the Sangh Parivar. Hardly a day passed when he did not make the RSS or BJP his preferred target. Despite having a cordial relationship with the BJP and RSS leadership, the wily politician didn’t deviate from his secret agenda of sending terrorists to the scaffold.

Shinde’s strategy has been crystal clear. Let the people judge him by his work and not just by his words spoken at political platforms for political expediency. Shinde’s conduct during the past four months is a clear indication that he wouldn’t take on the states, but would definitely take the wind out of the sails of his adversaries. If the sources in North Block are to be trusted, his next target is Balwant Singh Rajoana, who has been awarded the death sentence for the gruesome killing of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh. The state’s ruling Akali Dal has strongly opposed the move. But with Lok Sabha elections just over a year away, Shinde is quietly preparing the ground for Rajoana’s hanging, which may benefit the Congress at the BJP’s cost. In addition, he has also started building a political consensus for getting Rajiv Gandhi’s killers executed. If he succeeds in his mission, Shinde would only establish his credibility as a home minister who is willing to jump the queue by ignoring religion, caste or region when it comes to dealing with terrorists.

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

Power & Politics/ Mail Today, November 15, 2010

CONGRESS leaders and workers in Maharashtra are beginning to wonder if there is one rule that binds the party’s leaders in their state and another for those in other regions. Last week, when Ashok Chavan was given the marching order, he was merely following the path down which many of his Congress predecessors were dispatched by the party high command — forced out of office without completing a full term. Chavan’s ouster was an attempt to project a clean image for the Congress, whose government in Delhi is facing flak on a host of corruption charges. No doubt it gave a moral edge to the Congress but it signaled the erosion of the state’s political authority.

For more than four decades now, the Congress has been slowly but steadily disintegrating in Maharashtra which was once a “ bulk seat” state. Ashok Chavan was the 20th chief minister since the state came into being in 1960 and barring two — Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane of the Shiv Sena— all others have been from the Congress.

Yet, only one — Vasantrao Naik — completed a full term. He, in fact, ruled uninterrupted for eight years from 1967.

The rest were all waylaid by either internal party rumblings, charges of corruption or sacked because of appalling inefficiency. Each time change was effected, the high command claimed the high moral ground. In reality, this was nothing but political expediency as many of the chief ministers ejected from office later found their way back. There were some exceptions: Abdul Rahman Antulay, Shivajirao Nilangekar- Patil and Sudhakarrao Naik, but even they were brought to the Centre.

As late as 2004, Sushil Kumar Shinde, without doubt among the most acceptable of Dalit leaders in the Congress, was asked to go barely months after he had taken the Congress to a handsome victory in the assembly elections. He was replaced by, well, the man he replaced barely a year- and- a- half earlier, Vilasrao Deshmukh. The latter was forced out of office in 2008 not because of 26/ 11 but because he took his actor son on a conducted tour of the burnt out Taj Hotel. And now, Chavan has been shown the door because some of his relatives are among those who got apartments in the controversial Adarsh Society.

The story is repeated in the case of the state PCC presidents too, most of whom are not allowed to settle into their seats. The average tenure of the MPCC chief has been about two years and Pratibha Patil, now the country’s president, led the MPCC for exactly 18 months.

To a large extent, regional lead- Sushil Shinde ers themselves are responsible for the party’s pathetic plight in many of the states. Most of the PCCs are so horribly divided that state- level leaders can never agree on anything and leave the decision making process to the high command, a euphemism for 10 Janpath. We saw this most recently at the AICC session in Delhi earlier this month which was specifically convened to elect 13 members to the Congress Working Committee. Instead, the AICC voted as one to let Sonia Gandhi decide who will be in the CWC. The absence of the democratic process means that the party is being led by “ leaders” who are thrust upon the cadres.

With all power being concentrated to a few hands in Delhi, there is little attention paid to the states. There is no one in the party in major states such as Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal and Orissa who can be truly called “ leader” After Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s death, Andhra Pradesh has joined the group.

Ashok Chavan’s ouster has left local Congress leaders really peeved. I was in Mumbai last week and met up with a lot of them who had much to say about the high command’s discrimination.
The charge against Chavan is loose change compared to the allegations against, say Sheila Dikshit or a host of central ministers. Yet, Dikshit is in her 13th year in office and scam tainted Union ministers carry on merrily.

The party is likely to pay a high price for the very different yardstick that is applied in Mumbai.
With 48 seats, Maharashtra sends the second largest contingent of MPs to the Lok Sabha after Uttar Pradesh. It’s a “ bulk seat state” that’s very crucial to the Congress and its alliance partner, the NCP. But the high command’s revolving door policy doesn’t hold much hope for the Congress in that crucial state.