Tangible Conviction:

July 13/2011: Gurudas Kamat, given independent charge of a potential ministry such as drinking water and sanitation, resigned because he was not promoted to Cabinet, not seeing what possibilities lay in what he had been offered. Vilasrao Deshmukh says he is happy. Environment ministry changes hands to Jayanthi Natarajan as Jairam Ramesh takes Rural Development, the only sector that this move tried to focus on. Some minor ministers got inducted and the UPA 2 Prime Minister says this rejig may be the final one before polls. Assuming, of course, that not only physically but also politically he will survive till the end of this term of the 15th Lok Sabha in his post. One must definitely admire Manmohan Singh for his charismatic optimism. A Prime Minister of no real consequence, he has been able to rule, by the very virtue that many wonder about, for nearly one and a half terms already. No mean achievement, this.

Seen in the light of the harsh realities of the recent past and the massive beating that the images of Sonia and Manmohan has taken, one wonders what this reshuffle was all about. Apart from the brave statement that 2 posts are being held back to appease the DMK, a once powerful and now beaten but thoroughly corrupt political outfit from the southern state of Tamilnadu, the UPA leadership has made it amply clear that it has simply lost its moorings somewhere down the line.

It is not a Hazare demanding a particular law that troubles anyone. Neither is it the midnight walloping of a Baba that the citizen is concerned about. It is the plain and straight forward nonchalant style of ignoring ground realities that irks anyone who thinks of the nation and its future. By taking the people for granted and being certain that the opposition will not be able to tie its shoe laces before the 2014 general elections, the UPA is smug and is rapidly going ahead with its program of depriving the millions of poor of this nation of their basic dignities.

We also, as a nation, have consciously handed over our fates to people who have no love or respect for this nation. India means nothing and its people, along with its resources, are to be exploited fully and no one should be tolerated who opposes such a thought. The vote cast in favor of the UPA, both 1 and 2, has been by default. Default because the NDA was nothing by itself. Now we can see this clearly. Whatever the NDA was, it was a shadow of Atal Behari Vajpayee. Once that inpidual was dethroned by his own people, the structure came crashing down. So very down till today it is not in a situation of being rebuilt. No one else mattered in that outfit. Yet the BJP, till today, acts and most probably all of them believe deep down, that they had all held the edifice up. They are clueless, in their egoistic false, pure Hindi jargon muttering style that the ‘Hindutva’ card had brought them to power. Ridiculously, many among them think it still might succeed.

This very ignorance has come as a blessing to those who, like the Pope, believe India should be totally proselytized in the 21st century. Not merely in a manner that suggests spreading Christianity in this sub continent but in the very spirit and action of every Indian. Politically, this metamorphosis has already taken place among most of the Congress party activists one sees in this country. They see no wrong, hear no wrong and feel no devil lurking round the corner. The ‘foreign hand’ of Ms Indira Gandhi, now a reality, is pooh poohed away as a lame issue that needs no attention whatsoever. It is this thought of most Indians that will prove costly for the nation.

The reshuffle of the Union Cabinet is one more example of a lame duck governance system that feels the citizens have no other alternative but to go ahead in only one direction. Coming to think of it, this may be the very real position for many who actually bother to go and stand in a queue to cast their vote. Democracy seems pointless at such moments. The concept that all of us are free and liberated to choose who will represent us is nullified when one sees that very choosing frame is extremely limited and constipated. Breaking out of this mold is not yet on record for any democracy worldwide. Yet, the only hope is that after all these dirt has floated up, Indians will, like many times earlier, break free of any limitations that they might have felt in the past and do a drastic turn around. This may not be a hope in thin air but could become a tangible conviction.