Humiliate in the House, mollify at home
It is not surprising that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should have failed in his efforts to win over senior leaders of the BJP in his bid to seek their cooperation for the smooth functioning of Parliament. The Prime Minister had invited Mr lK Advani, Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Arun Jaitley to his residence late in the evening on Tuesday, but the meeting failed to break the deadlock because Mr Singh's actions appear to be driven more by necessity than by sincerity. He is keen to secure the opposition party's help in passing various Bills during the fag end of the Monsoon Session. But Mr Singh has of late been repeatedly ridiculing the BJP in both Houses. He has blamed the party for obstructing Parliament's functioning, for calling him names and, strangely, also for the economic mess that his Government has landed the country in. He has gone out of his way to snub even the senior-most leaders of the BJP. For instance, on Tuesday, he walked out of the lok Sabha in a huff after making a statement on the crucial coal files which the Congress-led Government claims are missing, even as veteran BJP leader lK Advani sought the Speaker's permission to speak on the matter. Eventually, neither Mr Advani nor Ms Swaraj, who too wished to say something, could make their submissions. Earlier during the ongoing session, the Prime Minister, instead of assuring the Opposition that he will hold accountable all those who are responsible for the missing files, Mr Singh had haughtily remarked that he was not the “custodian” of files.
The arrogance, along with his lack of interest in getting to the bottom of the disappearance of the files that the Central Bureau of Investigation needs urgently to take its probe in the coal block allocation scam forward and have something substantial to report to the Supreme Court which is monitoring the investigation, has naturally upset the BJP. It has also raised doubts that the Government is trying to conceal inconvenient facts.
Perhaps Mr Singh's new-found and completely misplaced belligerence has to do with the advice that his spin doctors have rendered. They believe that he has been too meek and too less forthcoming. But they must realise that the Prime Minister has little to be bellicose about. He has presided over the ruin of the country's economy, the drastic depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, a new low in the trust deficit between his Government and the Opposition, and over the devaluation of the very exalted position of the country's Prime Minister. Mr Singh's suddenly-discovered power of eloquence will not mitigate either any of these disasters or change the public perception. Meanwhile, in his zest to demonise the BJP, the Prime Minister appears to have forgotten that the party he heaps scorn on now, had only a few days ago cooperated with his Government to steer the National Food Security Bill in Parliament despite having strong reservations over some of the Bill's provisions. The BJP did the same with the land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill in the lower House. These are just some of the recent instances where the main Opposition has helped out the UPA regime. Given the situation, many BJP leaders are naturally wondering whether their policy of cooperation with such a Government should continue.