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Prime Minister's New Year Message Intriguing | Lokpal Logjam | | RUSTAM JAMMU, Jan 1: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally broke his silence yesterday and spoke on the fate of the Lokpal Bill as well as the cancer of corruption. He broke his silence on the eve of New Year. In fact, in his New Year message to the nation, the Prime Minister acknowledged that "corruption is a serious problem that needs multi-dimensional response of which Lokpal and Lokayuktas are an important part". "It was 'unfortunate' that Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill could not be passed by the Rajya Sabha (on December 29)…My Government is committed to enactment of the effective law. The year that has just ended was a very difficult year for the world…A revolution of rising expectations fostered by the extraordinary reach of the electronic media and the connectivity provided by new social networking platforms" (was witnessed), he also said. Besides, he referred to the major issues facing the country and the world as a whole. He identified five key challenges - livelihood security, (education, food, health and employment), economic security, energy security, ecological security and national security and said "we must work together as a nation" to address these vital issues. However, the most significant part of his statement was: "I wish to put behind a 'very difficult' year" and "acknowledge that concern about corruption has moved to the centre stage and vow to personally work to provide an 'honest and more efficient Government' to India". This observation and comment constitute an admission that all was not well last year and that he failed to provide a corruption-free and efficient government. And, his suggestion that the nation should "put behind a very difficult year" indicated his admission that 2011 witnessed disconnect between the government and the people leading to the emergence of a situation that motivated or provoked the dissatisfied and angry people to challenge the very authority of the Congress-led UPA government and the Parliament. His suggestion also indicated the Prime Minister's failure to carry along his alliance partners. It was this failure that added more to the woes the Union Government. The Congress was isolated more by its allies than the opposition parties. It is a fact. The Congress and the government suffered because they were destined to suffer for obvious reasons, the most important being the Congress' arrogance and utter disregard for the allies and the opposition. What about his commitment that he would "personally work to provide an 'honest and more efficient Government' to India?" There is no need to reflect on this commitment. For, the language speaks for itself and suggests that it was not the Prime Minister but someone else who was in full command or who mismanaged and messed up everything. The Prime Minister's regret that "it was 'unfortunate' that Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill could not be passed by the Rajya Sabha" is misleading. It is a desperate act on his part to tell the nation that he meant business but he couldn't come up to the expectation of the people due to certain factors. He didn't refer to the opposition, but he indirectly hinted at it. This job is being performed by his colleagues like Union Minister P Chidambaram, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal, Law Minister Salman Khurshid, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal and Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs Harish Rawat and Rajiv Shukla and AICC functionaries like Digvijaya Singh, Manu Abhishek Singhvi, Manish Tiwari, Shakeel Ahmed, Rashid Alvi and Renuka Choudhary. AICC general secretary and Sonia Gandhi's son Rahul Gandhi is also doing this job. All of them are indulging in BJP-bashing and not saying much on the role of the Congress' allies in the Rajya Sabha; all of them are trying to convince the nation that it was because of the BJP that the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha, an argument no one would buy because the entire nation witnessed the conduct of the Congress live in the House of Elders. Let's accept for the sake of argument that the Prime Minister was for the passage of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill on December 29 and that the opposition created scenes in the Rajya Sabha that forced the Chairman of the House to adjourn it sine die. But then the question arises what did the Prime Minister and his other colleagues like Pranab Mukharjee, Khurshid, Sibal, Bansal, Soni, Ashwini Kumar, to mention only a few, did to restore calm in the House or to counter the opposition that moved more than 180 amendments to the official Bill? The Prime Minister, who remained present in the House for hours, did not intervene even once. The Prime Minister is Leader of the House. He didn't speak like he spoke in the Lok Sabha on the same issue and defended the Bill to the hilt. Other ministers, barring Bansal, also didn't speak even once. They simply watched what happened in the House as silent spectators. Bansal did speak at about 11.30 p.m., but only to sabotage the Bill. He told the House that it was not possible to conduct proceedings in the House beyond 12 O' clock -- a suggestion the Chairman of the House accepted in no time. The Chairman of the House refused to consider the suggestion of the entire opposition that it was prepared to sit in the House the whole night. The truth, in short, is that neither the Prime Minister nor the Congress was willing to get the Bill passed. Why? Why because many a minister and bureaucrat would be behind bars if an effective, strong and autonomous Lokpal having jurisdiction over the CBI is established. The Congress would suffer at the hands of the people for what it did in the Parliament between December 27 and 29. And, then, Anna Hazare is very much there to upset the Congress' apple-cart. The black flag demonstration the Prime Minister faced today at Amritsar is an indication of the nation's mood. |
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