By R. Balashankar
Vendetta has many manifestations. The Vajpayee government did not believe in witch-hunt. It was cultured, forgiving, stood a high moral ground upholding democratic conventions and set grades in tolerance, devolution and institutional autonomy.
Congress has always been like this. Meek, distraught and awkward in opposition, mean, methodical, arrogant and vindictive in power. The company of communists has always led them astray. Remember 1975. The Congress ministers in the UPA are behaving as if a revolution has upturned all that existed before they assumed office. Heading the re-do brigade is Arjun Singh, who has unleashed a reign of terror in the ministry of Human Resources Development. He has already punished six bureaucrats, and sources say many more heads will roll.
Cheered by the communist boy scouts he thinks, he has a mission to undo and reverse. It is unusual for a government to send government servants on compulsory wait unless they are charged with extreme misconduct.
Cheered by the communist boy scouts he thinks, he has a mission to undo and reverse. It is unusual for a government to send government servants on compulsory wait unless they are charged with extreme misconduct.
This is surprising. Arjun Singh is a consummate, seasoned politician. One expected him to be wary of the pseudo, Sahamat crowd in the media and the Bengal red rim, who have ditched him repeatedly. They never let him be, the number one, two or even in the first half dozen.
Compare this with the NDA government'srecord. For six years, the NDA ruled the country and some of the top constitutional positions in the country are still held by persons appointed by P.V. Narasimha Rao, Deve Gowda or I.K. Gujral. When the NDA came to power, they did not ask persons holding constitutional positions to quit. This is true of all the Governors in states, constitutio-nal bodies like National Commission for Women, National Minorities Commiss-ion, Human Rights Commission and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Commission.
The case of autonomous bodies under various ministries and various academic councils is the same. Maximum liberty and functional autonomy were accorded under the Vajpayee government.
In the case of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), though the post of chairman traditionally was held by the Vice President of India, Vajpayee made Najma Heptu-llah the chairperson. The Congress has already taken steps to replace her with one of its supporters.
Every government has a right to appoint persons of its choice and ideological proximity to academic and administrative positions. Carry on with the old guard, is not this writer'scase.
But there is a certain decorum and sanctity attached to these posts and they are above politics and ideology. For instance, a Governor is a consti-tutional entity. He is appointed by the President on the recommendation of the cabinet. The NDA government, for instance, not only allowed all Governors appointed by the previous regime to complete their tenure, but in many cases extensions were given. This is true of eminent personalities like P.C. Alexander, Kunwar Ali Khan, P.K. Dave, Khurshid Alam Khan, M.M. Jacob, Sardar Sukhdev Singh Kang, Justice Fatima Biwi, A.R. Kidwai, Dr C. Rangarajan to name a few, all appointed by non-BJP regimes. The Congress and more violently its Left Gestapo behave as if they have a design to throw the system to wind.
Former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi is supposed to be the one who made maximum saffronisation and turned the education system stand on head. But the NCERT is still headed by Dr J.S. Rajput, who is a known prot?g? of Arjun Singh. It is Singh who is intolerant of him now. Joshi did not change a single person from any of the autonomous bodies, appointed by the previous government, before their tenure ended. This was true of ICHR, ICSSR, ICPR, NCERT, UGC, Simla Institute of Advanced Studies, NBT, IGNOU, AICTE or any of the other central universities. Many of these posts were filled under the UDF government, when S.R. Bommai was the HRD Minister.
Similarly, some of the bureaucrats, known as Arjun Singh proteges, or communist fellow travellers, like Champak Chatterjee, Sumit Banerjee, Bhaskar Ghosh, M.M. Jha, Kasturi Gupta Menon and even education secretary Dasgupta who was responsible for the fiasco of the first NDA Education Ministers? Conference, enjoyed the confidence of the BJP Minister. In fact, Dr Joshi did not make any joint secretary or secretary-level change arbitrarily. If a new person was appointed it was done only when the vacancy arose. Similar was the case with other academic bodies like CBSE, NEEPA and National Open School. Each one of the so-called saffron appointments he made were after the posts naturally fell vacant and by scrupulously following the laid down procedures.
Because, any government is about creating systems, institu-tions and precedents. If you violate one today, your successor will be justified in discarding the entire system. The UPA government is even planning inquiry into the defence deals, PSU disinvestments and what not.
It is rare in our democratic history that bureaucrats are hounded out, branding them saffron, yellow or tricolour. This shows the imbecile crassness the unlimited private agenda has brought in.
The sterling example of continuity under the NDA is seen in the case of scientific institutions. Joshi presided over the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ocean Develop-ment. Other scientific depart-ments were directly under the Prime Minister. In all of them, the secretaries like Dr Ramamurthy, Dr R.A. Mashel-kar, Dr Manju Sharma, and Dr Muthunayakam, the institutional heads appointed by the UDF government, continued all through the Vajpayee dispensa-tion. In many cases they were even given repeated extensions.
Again it was the Vajpayee government which, following the Sixth Pay Commission'sreco-mmendation raised the retirement age from 58 to 60. If it was intolerant of continuity, there was no need for it to suffer the ?Congress-appointed men? for the extended term.
With the new regime the format has changed. The crop of sycophants, with boorish absentee idealism and the secular brigade in the English press have taken over governance. BJP bashing is their brand equity. They have unleashed a vilification campaign. They behave as if they have a licence to abuse Hindutva.
All these appear in the distant past, though a couple of weeks away, what with a weak government, weaker in political content, back in the saddle, with Stalinist protectionism of the communists setting their agenda. The NDA, thanks to its tradition of mass struggle, long years in opposition, let free play of ideas, civil liberties and political discourse. With the new regime the format has changed. The crop of sycophants, with boorish absentee idealism and the secular brigade in the English press have taken over governance. BJP bashing is their brand equity. They have unleashed a vilification campaign. They behave as if they have a licence to abuse Hindutva.
Look at the way they blame Narendra Modi as if he is the reason for poverty in the country, for the NDA defeat and even the hot summer! A city editor, writing his apologies for all his previous pro-NDA articles (when BJP was in power) went to the extent of calling the BJP president Venkaiah Naidu, ?a party president, who is, if you are charitable, a lout (and if you are not feeling charitably disposed, then a mawaali).?
Consider Venkaiah is not only the national president of the largest party in the country and a former Union Minister, but also a respected parliamen-tarian of long standing. Is this journalism? They will not dare give even a Kashmiri terrorist such a lousy abuse. Is this an example of the sickening levels to which the Indian paparazzi has sunk or the decadent culture of sleaze the city rags promote?
It is clear the UPA does not have the patience to follow rules and regulations. They are in an indecent hurry to dismantle, for, it is easier and they know they are not there for long.
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